A Sage in the Endless Sky
by Star Sage
Summary: Many a journey that begins with a single act of defiance, can lead the universe down a course of ruin or salvation. This is the Tale of one such journey. The universe beckons to the heart of a young explorer, who will push the boundaries of all that is known, and change the course that has been set for the stars(Endless Sky Fanfic)
1. The Start of a Journey

(A/N: Cover and universe credited to Michael Zahniser)

I walk onto the bridge of my new ship, a Shuttle really, but still, it's mine, and I sniff the air to find it smells brand new, like it had just rolled off the shipyards at Betelgeuse. I know that's not the case, this ship had probably been sitting on the lot outside for more than a decade before I'd finally bought it, but no one anywhere could have convinced me that this ship wasn't as spotless as a newborn, and waiting for me to take it wailing into the skies overhead, which, in opposition to all my hopes, was overcast and gray.

"Hello, Captain, welcome to your new ship. All systems conforming to your biometrics now, please hold," said a pleasant sounding, male voice, and I smiled at it as I settled into the seat, feeling the motors beneath move, adjusting everything from the cushiness of the padding, to just how high the gravity was, as the engines test fired, the sound vibrating, and the computer logging how my ears sounded against them, buffering the space between till the roar was a pleasant sound, rather than a harsh rumble.

"Biometric adjustments complete. This vessel welcomes you aboard, Captain. I am the Strategic Tactical Analysis Recorder, you may call me, STAR, if you wish," said the voice, and I nodded, running my hand over the controls in front of me, letting them fill my head with thoughts of freedom, as I looked out at the shipyard, or rather, junkyard, before me, where the man who had sold me this vessel was already working on the next sucker, trying to get them to buy a huge Star Barge with no engines, weapons, or anything else one would need to explore, while I had selected the slightly cheaper shuttle.

"Would you like me to alter my voice, Captain? I have many accents and tones you might enjoy. My previous captain said she most prefered an assistant AI like myself to be the opposite of their own gender, for instance?" as the computer spoke, the voice changed, from a rather refined sounding male to a woman who herself might have been a woman of class, in business or the like. I chuckled to myself.

"STAR, you can keep the old voice, if you prefer. I know AIs grow to enjoy their own voices, and I bet you've had that one for a while," I told him, as I began to run through the settings on my controls, including beginning my preflight checks for the journey that would take this ship out of the yard, and to the starport a few miles away.

"Very good sir. I must admit, I was beginning to wonder if anyone would buy my old hulk. So many these days tend to purchase more...shall we say, copious or combative chassis. They all seem to want to haul freight or fight pirates, no one wants a personnel transport anymore," he complained, and I nodded, looking towards a Sparrow light interceptor out the window. The thing gleamed far more brightly than almost anything in the yard, probably spit polished twice a day every day, hoping someone would purchase the glorified turret.

"I don't mind myself. You've got more tanks than the Sparrow, even if you're a bit slower, and you're no clunker like a Star Barge. No, when I go up, I want a hull like this," I told STAR, as we began to ascend, taking off into the wild gray yonder, and then being auto assisted towards a bay that was already prepped and ready for us.

"Ah, so sir wishes to go far? Any particular destination in mind, if I might be so bold to ask?" said STAR in that proper way I was beginning to enjoy myself. Something about his accent really made him sound nice.

"Well, how's about, while we get down, you tell me your story, and I'll tell you mine?" I offered, and the AI seemed to take a moment to consider this, before the screen in front of me changed, showing me logs.

"I find that an interesting proposition, but sadly, my own tale is not one that's long. I was built on some backwater planet Rust, out in the fringe of space in a tiny system called Kraz. My owner's mother had recently died, some accident that she blamed on her brother, and she had me made before taking off. Sadly, her own tale was not long either, as she was visiting the planet Hope when the supervolcano there erupted," as he spoke, images began to play out, mostly showing the images of the ship's cameras shaking, as everything around it became chaos.

"She was caught in it?" I asked, and got a red blinking light I assumed was the AI shaking his head.

"No, my owner then wanted to save people. This shuttle, she loaded it with as many as she could, and brought them here, to New Boston, but sadly, she caught something in the several day journey. One of the Hope refugees had been infected by some virus the eruption had released, and my owner ended up succumbing. I have sat on that lot for fourteen years now, because the government claimed me when no one could find her brother," he told me, and it was my turn to nod.

"A tragedy, a hero that was lost in the shuffle of those days," I told him, remembering the reports. Not that many from Hope had come to New Boston, as most had been taken to nearby Navy bases, as those had been the majority of the evacuating ships.

"Indeed, still, one soldiers on, and I'm happy to finally have a new master. What of yourself, sir? What tale do you have to tell?" he asked, and I chuckled again, as we slowly descended towards the port, mostly just a collection of concrete pads that were slowly being consumed by the surrounding swamp.

"Heh, my tale isn't much longer, at least not my personal one, but I have a family story I could give you. First, what do you know of the Sages?" I asked, and I could hear the chirp as the computer searched his database, and probably those of the planet, for information.

"Sage, a knowledgeable person, often male, who tends to dispense wisdom, but not always in the ways one would expect. Hmm, an odd term to use for oneself," he said, and I actually burst out laughing, slapping my knee as I sat there.

"Hmm, the response indicates that the information is correct, but incomplete," he ascertained, and I nodded, pulling a tear from my eye, before recounting my tale.

"Indeed, I didn't mean sage as a person, I meant as the name of a family," I told him, and this time the chirping only took a moment. After all, you only had to do a cursory search of New Boston's records to find my family.

"Very interesting," as he spoke, a list of accomplishments flashed on the screen in front of me. My ancestor, the first of my line, that we knew of, Elizabeth Sage, who set out from Earth in a long range vessel, like so many others of her era. About twenty years later, she reappeared, unlike most of those, having scouted several new routes, including being the first human to enter the Deep, before it had become one of the most powerful single areas in humans space with technology there being almost a decade ahead of the rest of the galaxy.

It then went farther, my ancestors, always exploring, always pushing at the edges. From scouting for fleets during the Alpha Wars, to simply going away into the dark places, my family was always going where others feared to tread. Then my Great-Grandfather happened. The man, reaching his middle years, had decided to settle on a world only just starting to build itself up as a trade stop, New Boston. Investing his not inconsiderable fortune as arrived, he carved out a nice niche for himself and his family.

He'd figured the world would grow, after all, it was near enough to Earth to be considered near the core of humanity, but also far enough away to be right there when one wanted to escape the humdrum of the crowded cities. Then his ship had been claimed by some bit of the planetary government on some trumped up charge, and all the funds he'd had coming from the family's various ventures dried up, as a stipulation of the family was that a Sage always must own a ship. While they held his, the planetary government itself claimed the incoming funds, as per the will of old Elizabeth.

That had trapped my family here for almost a century now, my great-grandfather dying of a broken heart when the corrupt officials had destroyed his Lady Anne, the ship of his youth, melting it down for scrap, and fragmenting the onboard AI. His daughter, my Grandmother, had fought all her life, trying to earn the money to gain a ship, and they'd blocked her at every turn, before she'd passed the duty onto my mother, and then, finally to me. I was now twenty five years old, by old Earth standards, and the old men who had blocked my family for three generations had found themselves stymied by my tactic.

I'd gone to the galactic bank, a common sight on any world, and gotten a loan, putting everything my family had up as collateral, the banker looking like he was going to be sick as he signed the forms, knowing this was the end of his job here on New Boston, as the old men would surely drive him off. Still, I had the money, and before they could buy up every ship in my price range, I'd bought my shuttle, and now it stood on the pad of the space port.

"So, once we take off, we'll get not only a million and a half credits a diem, but I'll get you a bigger hull. How'd you like to be in a speedy ship. Say, we seek out a Flivver hull for you? They're the fastest ships in the galaxy, even more than the aliens can build. Then we'll get you some escort ships to command," I offered, and the AI's screen actually went through a kaleidoscope of colors, before settling down.

"Hmm, something with a real display would be nice. A good enough processor, and I could even make myself a face. Heck, if you could splurge on a holodisplay, I could have a body," he said, his voice actually getting misty on me.

"For the one who got me off this mud ball, anything. Just let me confirm our course at the port authority, and we'll be flying away into the heavens," I told him, rising from my seat, and then walking out into the port. This was going to be the start of a beautiful friendship, I knew it. Star and Sage, sailing the cosmos together.

(A/N:

Welcome to my Endless Sky Fanfic/Let's Play/Thing I Done Did. This is a game that's in the style I quite enjoy I tend to call Han Solo games. Basically, you start out in a universe, just a ship and some credits to your name, with the ability to go many places, meet many people, and make money in a variety of ways. From Trading, to Bounty Hunting, to Piracy, and all of them are actually valid and profitable. You command a single ship directly, but can have as many 'escorts' as you can afford, but remember, you have to pay your crews, and that's a daily cost to you.

Now, to be clear, this is my story, sculpted around the main game, with a few differences here and there. For one, the Pilot of the ship is kind of left blank, an Ageless-Faceless-Gender-Neutral-Culturally-Ambiguous-Adventure- Person in the game itself. Here, he's Male, and goes by the name Sage, obviously.

For another, the ship has an AI as a character. This one being STAR. Yes, I named them after myself. What a humble guy I am, right? The other difference is money. I play games like this with an eye for New Game Plus sorts of things, and Endless Sky is no exception. In this case, I transfer over salary and tribute I earn to a new character. I will be doing that for this fic/let's play as well, mostly because I already nearly lost the number once, and I don't want to risk it again. As you see above, I am trying to work it into the main plot.

That's all I think needs to be said, otherwise, I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I hope you like the future updates. Remember to drop a review, as well as favorites and follows, so I know how I'm doing.

Oh, and for anyone wanting to play the game, Endless Sky is free. That's right, no microtransactions, no cost, just go to steam and grab it. It's a real steal at that price. Better yet, it's easily modable, and there's already a fair few of those on the discussion forum. Also, it's updating constantly right now, with new content every few weeks. So go and play it. Right now.)


	2. Taking Flight

Walking out the airlock, which took a few seconds to cycle out the cool refreshing air of the ship, and cycle in the hot, muggy air outside, I stepped back into New Boston, possibly for the final time. Around me was the port, a few ships docked here and there, but most empty space. Smiling, I made my way along a rickety wooden bridge over swamp water that connected my pad to the central tower, the only permanent structure built at the port, and even then, it seemed to be sinking on one side, with the tower slightly tilted.

Once there, I spent a good ten minutes arguing with the port authority, with the man at the desk trying to convince me I had to stay for some trumped up check on my ship, for my own safety of course, and I told him I was only going one system over, I would get it done there. It took me invoking my right as a Republic citizen, and threatening to contact a Navy outpost to finally force him to give me clearance to leave as well as my pilot's license, and I was in a far less happy mood as I made my way back to the shuttle, Star's Shuttle, and spotted a man loitering nearby.

"Nothing quite like buying your first starship," he comments, and I nod in an offhand way, offering me a bit of steel wool, and pointing to a rust spot on the side. It was obvious that was how he knew the ship was new to me, as any ship in space wouldn't develop such splotches. Taking the offered tool, I quickly rubbed the stuff out, my mood much better now, as I could see my reflection in the hull.

"Well, I don't plan on becoming too attached to this one. I'll be flying something much better before long," I tell him, imagining those credits that will be lining my accounts once I leave for orbit. Either not knowing who I am, a possibility given his stain covered coveralls had an offworld style, or just being nice, he chuckled and laughed at me.

"I'm sure you will, but there's something nice about having a ship you can pilot all by yourself. Believe me, once you have to start managing crew and paying salaries, or keeping track of a whole fleet, you'll miss these days when everything was simple," the old man, with a noticeable accent that definitely pegged him as an offworld, sighed wistfully, and gently put his hand on the hull, rubbing his bare palm over the warm metal, as I realized what he was saying implied.

"You're a captain?" I ask, looking at the ships all around, trying to peg which one was his by sight, but seeing not obvious connections between him, and the few single man ships in my view, all being overshadowed by the Navy vessel that towered over even the control tower itself.

"Was. Sold off my fleet a few days ago, and I already miss it. But it was time. Time to retire…" he lets the last word trail off, his gaze going towards the stars, and I begin to understand. He must have sold his ships and one of the nearby larger systems, possibly Sol's Luna yards themselves, and he'd been dropped off here, another victim of the old men on New Boston who restricted travel off world.

"Say, any chance I could hitch a ride with you? Maybe show you the ropes, give you some pointers? I could pay you, of course," he says, and I nod. This was a man who needed help, who had probably tried booking passage on a dozen or more freighters, only to have them refuse passage for some arbitrary reason. I had no such qualms, however.

"Sure, where are you trying to get to?" I ask him, smiling, as I lead him into the airlock, pushing a button to start the cycle of air movement, giving us a moment away from the port.

"Well, I've got a spot reserved in a retirement home, but I don't mind taking a roundabout way to get there. For starters, how about you give me a lift to New Greenland? It's just one jump away from here; I can mark it on your map," as he speaks the last word, the light turns green, and we enter the Shuttle proper with a hiss, the air becoming pleasant again, as I lead him to the cockpit, past the sparse bunk rooms.

"Sounds good," I told him, and he smiles at me, as he pushed a few buttons, and a service cart comes towards my ship, loaded with his luggage.

"Great, my names James, by the way," he says, offering me his hand. I take it, shaking it, and finding that despite his age, the old man had a heck of a grip.

"I'm Sage, a family name. The AI of this ship is STAR," I tell him, pointing a thumb towards the AI's display.

"A pleasure, Mr. James," said that proper voice of his.

"And you. I'm looking forward to traveling with the two of you, Captain Sage. Do you want to go to the trade center to pick up any goods for sale? Or maybe visit the outfitter before we leave?" he asks, a question that would normally have been an easy yes, but I looked out the port to find a bureaucrat I recognized coming towards our ship, a whole pallet's worth of forms in his hands.

"I think I'm ready to hit the space ways myself," I tell James, motioning for him to strap in, and even as the man in the suit comes towards us, I'm taking off, flaring my engines and scattering his papers, before shooting into the overcast skies, and finally into the space beyond.


	3. Amusing Asides

"Captain Sage, I have installed the holologs, if you'd like to make an entry," said Star's voice, sounding far more human than before, lacking the proper accent he'd had. Around me was his new hull, the Flivver I'd promised him back on New Boston. It had been a few days only, but the instant I'd left the mudball behind, I'd started collecting on my family's money. Not that I'd completely escaped New Boston's grip, as they sent me regular messages now about returning for reasons that had started out as just missed paperwork, but had now grown into actual attempts at intimidation, as they sorely missed the influx of over a million credits a day that was now going to me instead of them.

"Hmm, not a bad idea. Okay let's get the first entry out of the way. My adventures with James," I began, and Star looked at me, his holographic body being an almost duplicate of my own, save instead of the captain's uniform I wore, he wore a business suit.

"Adventures, sir? They were mildly amusing asides, at best," he countered, and I chuckled, as we slowly began to rise off the landing pad, making our way into space.

"True, but he was a nice old man, and he gave us some pretty good advice. Plus, I don't think we would have gotten any of those jobs without him," I commented, and Star, after a few moments, nodded his head.

"Alright, so, James first took us to New Greenland, where I learned to check the local weather report, and make sure I have an appropriate bit of attire for the planet I'm heading to. While there, he introduced me to the idea of taking missions, for a Shuttle, that means playing bus driver of the cosmos," I began, and watched as STAR's form blinked out, to be replaced by images of our passenger, and the people he'd introduced us to along the way, including that first family.

"Turns out the old man was as loaded as I was, though I kept my own family fortunes a secret, first visiting the bank on New Greenland to clear my debt to them, an action that almost got me arrested as the clerk apparently thought I was running some kind of scam, taking out a huge loan and paying it off only two days later. Still, with that out of the way, I went to the port to depart, and ran into James again, this time hauling a family, the Hendersons, around. Three generations of people, all begging me to take them off world," as I spoke, the image of the family grew larger in the holodisplay, focusing on the old lady.

"Anyway, I would have waved off the money, but didn't want to seem ungrateful for the job, so I decided to take them. It was a tight fit, considering there's only five bunks on a shuttle, and we had five adults, and four kids, but we were able to make it work, and I took the family to New China, where the father hoped to find work, and I wished them all a good and happy life," finishing that, a map of the stars between New Greenland and New China popped up, with a graphic of a Shuttle moving between them.

"Landing there, I dropped off my passengers, making sure they were getting everything, and even took the father aside. Apparently James, despite what he'd claimed, was footing the bill for these people, who didn't have a credit to their name. Feeling pity myself, I slipped the man a hundred thousand credit chit, and then wished him and his family good luck in their new life, before James went off on his own again, and I decided to explore New China a little," an image popped up of the Terra Tower, the massive air terraformer that gave New China a human optimal atmosphere, standing almost a mile tall.

"When I made my way back to port after my sight seeing, James found me again. This time, it was a vacationing family, rather than a moving one, and I would have said no, if the destination they wanted to visit hadn't been Earth itself. Old Home Terra. Sol III," and as I spoke, another image of the trip popped up, but this time Earth itself came to dominate the view.

"The tourists, Chuck, Sarah, and their son Carl, were given a few last bits of parting advice from James, who looked at me with eyes that said it was as much for me as them, and then we parted ways again. This time, I took a day off, observing the Earth and all her glory. If you could call it that. Oh, it looks fine, the most populated, and supposedly prosperous world in human space. This world is, by all accounts, what would generally be described as a hell hole though, with some nice tourist destinations, and little else beyond government buildings that are safe to visit," as I spoke, a few buildings swept past, my favorite being the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, as that was a monument to what my line stood for, always going forward into the great unknown.

"I found James a few hours later in the hanger, staring wistfully out at the ships, and trying to be philosophical about the state of humanity on Earth and beyond. Not that the image worked much, he still had those grease covered overalls on, but still, I let him have his moment, as he asked me to take him on one final trip, the last trip of his life, as we were destined for his retirement home, a planet named Hestia, that my AI companion quickly identified as a 'Paradise' world, fit only for the elite," as I spoke, said AI flashed our route again, including that time I got turned around because I refused to buy star charts, before finally showing an image of the world itself.

"James revealed his fortune to me as we landed, his coveralls being replaced with a real wool suit, a luxury not many a man can afford in this day and age. He tried to pass it off, tried to say he wasn't that wealthy, but I knew that he was on par with my family line, even if his was liquid assets rather than invested ones. Still, I wished the man all the best as he left me, going towards the richly appointed house he'd had me land at, with a butler coming out to greet him and everything," this last was displayed as a recording from the Shuttle's external cameras, and I watched again, as the old man slipped out of my life, a nice old guy, all things considered.

"After that, I took off, going along an unidentified starlane to the galactic west of Hestia, and finding the world of world of Follower, where we're at right now. I spent the night here, buying this Flivver hull for STAR and all the upgrades to go with it. Now we're going to be exploring the galaxy together. Let's see what the future has in store," as I spoke, I dropped into the Captain's seat.

"Log for Monday, December 13, 3013 filed. Do you have a course to set, Captain Sage?" asked the AI, and I grinned as the atmosphere above us began to give way to the inviting void of space.

"Second star to the right, and straight on til morning," I told him, smiling as the stars began to fade into a single point of light in front of me, hyperspace welcoming us with open arms.


	4. History Lesson

"Log begin, Remembrance Day, Tuesday, February 22, 3014. Today, almost five hundred years to the day really, the Alpha Wars began. A conflict that embroiled all of humanity against our progeny, the Alphas. Those beings created from our minds, but made to be better than us. How were they made, and by who? No one knows, not really anyway. Some believe them to be a government experiment gone far awry, others that they were cooked up by some human supremacist group in anticipation of a first contact that hadn't happened yet," as I spoke, the timeline of events played in front of STAR's holographic form, showing the first days of the war.

"Whatever their origin, well, they were monsters. They used people, as human shields, as guinea pigs in their sick tests, or just as toys to be played with until they broke, and then discarded as trash. These were the boogiemen made manifest, born of the worst parts of humanity, and lacking all of our best traits, no matter what they said. Worse, for years into the war, they were winning, as their ships always seemed to be faster, better armed and armored. Always popping up in the worst places, at the worst possible times," and with those statements, the pictures of the defeats at the Line and the Gate were shown.

These were the worst battles of the war. The Battle of the Line was the battle to hold the Earth's hyperspace routes from the Alphas' fleets, stopping them at the Vega system. It hadn't worked, as the Alpha forces had literally rammed into the line of Navy ships, slamming into them, one after another, at near sublight speeds. The defeat was almost total, and the rout back towards Earth nearly finished the human race. The Tannhauser Gate, now the Zosma system, was the last guardians before the Deep, and many lives were lost trying to hold it against the seemingly endless numbers of the Alphas.

"Then it ended. In a fell swoop, the people of the Deep came together, and with ships and weapons far more advanced, produced by the 'Deep Thinkers' according to the people of Valhalla, the human race beat them back. The Alphas, despite their victories, had spent far more than it had first seemed breaking those final lines of defense, and when the counterstroke came on so hard and fast, they were broken, the world of Womb, in the Gamma Cassiopeiae system, was literally smashed to rubble, and the largest chunks of it hurled into the sun, to destroy whatever backups the Alpha's might have," this was accompanied by the images of the final great battle, the last stand of the Alphas literally breaking on the shields of the Deep designed ships.

"After that, they were reduced, but not defeated, and to date, no official victory day exists for the Alpha Wars, as too many remember the horrors of those days, and some still think they could return, with weapons far worse than those they had before. Vigilance is the price that we pay now, and for five hundred years every explore dreads coming into a new system and finding a stronghold of them, waiting there to pounce on the unsuspecting," and with that, the images of the war were replaced with the emblem of the Alphas, the A with the infinity symbol behind it, showing their belief in their infinite power.

"Still, that fear will not stop me. I will not cower before the stories of five centuries past. It's why we're in a Flivver after all. This ship, with these engines, can outrun anything, and we already have, as a dozen or more pirates have tried to take us on, and found us slipping through their fingers. Its close a time or two, but I'm confident we can keep going, and discover brand new worlds out there somewhere," I said, and STAR shrugged, as he logged everything in the computer, getting me to raise an eyebrow at him.

"You disagree?" I asked, and the AI seemed to mull over his own thoughts for a moment, before facing me directly.

"I have to agree, we're the fastest thing in space as of this moment, but I feel that firepower would not go amiss. Perhaps a few large warships for escorts. You do have the funds to afford it after all," he said, and flashed my current balance, well over a hundred million credits, beside him, and I stopped to consider his words. It was true, with no weapons, and not much in the way of shields, we were stuck with running whenever we encountered enemies. I had wanted to adventure alone for a while, but perhaps a fleet of ships wouldn't be a bad idea.

"File that thought away for later. For now, there's a route out of this system I think sounds promising. If we run into a big pirate ship, we'll hightail it to the nearest Navy shipyard and rustle up a hull and the men to man it," I offered and STAR seemed to accept this as he began to plot a course away into the heavens, and I watched the stars' glow turn from many dots of light, to a single glowing sphere in front as the hyperdrive activated.


	5. Overwhelming Odds

"Sir, they are achieving a firing solution," said STAR's voice, sounding the most distressed I had heard him. Around me, sirens were blaring, loud, annoying, distracting sirens, but it would have taken too much away from my concentration to tell STAR to quiet them down as my hands flew over the controls. Behind me, I could hear the engines and cooling systems strain against the load I was putting on them, as STAR distributed power between everything, allowing me to flare our forward mounted engines, stopping us just so that pair of missiles flew past our bow.

One of the reasons AIs didn't pilot ships themselves is they don't react fast enough to real world stimuli. Oh, they can process it quickly, but their minds are always going over every solution, never picking one because it never brings the risk down low enough. Normally, outside of combat, this isn't an issue, and AIs tend to the route planning, and day to day functions of a ship, but as the Falcon behind us came closer, I knew this was not one of those times STAR could help, and instead focused on getting us out of this.

"Do you have a route out of this system yet!?" I demanded, fingers screaming at me, as sweat trickled down my brow. Still, I never let go of the stick, adjusting our pitch and yaw so we were suddenly shooting in an entirely different direction, just as the pirate ship's big guns tore through the space we'd have been in had we kept course.

"I will have it momentarily," he responded, trying to sound calm, and I spared a glance at his display, seeing the route really was nearly done, but also that it wasn't going to be the one we'd come in on. No, that one had three more Falcons and a dozen or more smaller ships coming out of it now. Swearing, I jammed everything we had into the port thruster, spinning us around, and then gunning us straight towards the new route, which lay past the Falcon that had been on our tail.

"Sir, might I suggest-," began STAR.

"No!" I cried, grunting as I pulled us back, our hull clearing theirs by inches, even as I wished not for the first time that I had a shield generator on board to provide some additional protection.

"Route checked and cleared, engaging hyperdrive," said my AI, and I got another blare of alarms as more missiles were incoming, from a pair of missile boats that I didn't have the time to ID. Still, we were already stopped, and by the time they got in range, we had shot away into the distance, vanishing towards a distant star.

"Well, that was exciting," I commented, as we came out of hyperspace, the clock showing a day had passed in seconds due to FTL physics I honestly didn't understand. Still, those pirates were way behind us, and while I could see we didn't have enough fuel in the tank for even a single jump, our ramscoop was already collecting more from the surrounding system. A few hours, and we could perform a few jumps in rapid succession, should the pirates prove to be spawn campers.

"Sir, that was not what I would call an enjoyable experience. Perhaps when we return to port, you'll think of buying a warship for our escort?" said STAR, and I sighed, realizing he was right. I had so wanted to be as Elizabeth had back in the day, a single person, a single ship, plying the starlanes, and making my way to the farthest edge of the galaxy, but this had been too close, as if the pirates had known I'd be there, and were waiting to pounce. Still pondering this, I rose from my seat, gazing towards a screen at the damage report, which included many scores on the hull that couldn't be fixed yet, and a few power systems I could reach from inside.

Then the sirens sounded, loud blaring alarms going off again, and exhausted as I was, I fell back into the familiar seat of my Flivver, looking towards the scanners. Behind us, the Falcon that had been dogging us since we'd entered the uninhabited system before, came screaming into view again. It had a few scorch marks on the hull, possibly from another fight that they'd gotten into in the system we'd been in. Looking towards my fuel gauge, which was only half there, I decided to talk.

"STAR, open a channel. Maybe we can buy these fools off," I ordered, and waited for tense seconds as the AI linked himself to their systems, and then slowly the screen before me resolved into images I knew far, far too well. Five faces I recognized from New Boston, the Old Men, as I called them, though that was a misnomer. Their ranks boasted a woman, after all, and their ages weren't really that advanced. Still, it was the power of their and their forebears politics that had trapped my family on the swampy world for a century.

"Ah, Mr. Sage, so good to see you've finally come to your senses," said the one in the center, and I stared daggers at him, keeping an eye on the fuel gauges, willing the ramscoop to go faster.

"Benard, it's a...I'll cut to the chase, what in all the hells are you doing here?" I demanded. Buying time would only get me so far after all, and right now, I was just plain curious what a group of big wigs from New Boston were don't out this far, and on a ship flying the flag of a pirate.

"Ah, as unpleasant as ever, I see. Well then, I shall be brief. You will be returning to New Boston with us, where you will be tried in a very public, very fair court, for all the crimes you committed in leaving our world behind. Then, you'll be tossed into a prison cell, where you will never see the light of the stars ever again, and we will go back to collecting on our money," he said bluntly, getting a few looks from his colleagues, one of which leaned off screen, whispering something about scrubbing the recording of the conversation from the logs.

"You greedy bastards. You really went to all this trouble, just to drag me back so you could steal more of my money?!" I demanded incredulously.

"Indeed we have. You see, the fortune you were making us has been...invested in various ventures that are only now coming to fruition, and we need to insure that we do not run out of capital before that endpoint is reached. Your departure at this time was most inconvenient, but luckily, we had enough in savings to hire these fine gentlemen to come drag you back home, where you belong," he told me, getting a very politician like grin on his face as he leaned back in his seat and crossed his fingers in front of him. As he spoke, several more Falcons entered the system.

"Now would be the time for you to surrender. You have no weapons, no shields, and even if you can outrun us, there's half a fleet waiting for you back in the system we came from. You're trapped in the Ultima Thule system. The only hyperspace lane out is back the way you came," he told me, and I grunted, looking at the scanners out of the corner of my eye, and finding he was very right. At least, about the lane. There was an anomaly though, a swirling energy vortex that lingered at the edge of the system.

"STAR, prepare to take on boarders," I said, and then cut the comm channel, as that grin on screen grew even more smug. Of course, the minute the image vanished, I began to run numbers in my head.

"Sir, if you surrender now, I don't see myself being left alive, or you for that matter," he said, and I shook my head.

"No, no, old Elizabeth's will is clear, the family fortunes, investments in a thousand big businesses, all pay dividends only while I or another of her descendents is alive. They'll be sure I live to a ripe old age, and probably make sure I have a kid too, even if they have to force the issue," I told him, watching on one of the screens, as the group of ships began to close in, their weapons cold, as they needed me alive. While they grew closer, I started to adjust our angle, as subtly as possible.

"Still, I'm not going to be taken back, and they're certainly not fragmenting the one who got me off that mudball. Perpare to gun the engines, hard. If they think it's this easy to catch a sage, well they have another think bloody well coming," I swore, and STAR, looking where I was aiming, nodded, and I could hear the whine as our engines, still appearing cool, began to build up a charge inside them. The moment the Falcon that Bernard and the others were on got close enough, I redlined our core, burning away at best speed.

"Aim for the vortex. If it's as energetic as it appears, we can probably use it to fill the scoop in record time, then we can do several jumps to get back to that Republic world we passed and report these morons," I told STAR, and then watched as the swirling cloud of blue light grew brighter in my screen. Behind us, the Falcons all fired, but the idiots had failed to keep their targeting locks on us specifically, and with our size compared to the other Falcon that had been trying to dock, I got a nice view as missiles slammed into their shields.

"Sir, they're attempting to reopen communications," said the AI helpfully, and I motioned for him to put them on screen as we dove towards the vortex.

"Mr. Sage, please see reason. If you die here, then all those lovely credits will end up in the hands of the Earth political system. Do you really think they'll do anything worthwhile with such fortune?" said Bernard, the others beside him looking far more like they wanted to say other things, as one of them shouted orders to the pirate crew, and one actually had a fire roaring behind him that was being put out by a crewman.

"You know, that's not really an argument that's going to work on me, considering you're way worse to me right now that some Earth big shot," as I spoke, the ship shuddered suddenly, the screen blurring the image of the faces, which I clicked off with a flick of my wrist anyway.

"What's going on?" I asked, punching a few buttons, adjusting our gravity so I wasn't being drawn out of my seat by the sudden pull towards the front of the ship.

"The vortex, it's generating a much higher gravity field at close range than at far. Scanning the database for matches produces many similar phenomenon, but the most closely related is a wormhole," explained the AI, and I looked forward into the roiling mass of clouds, where lightning played between formations, and I could now see the twisting light behind.

"Is it safe?" I queried, even as I drove the ship forward, the Falcons doing their best to close in, but already too far away to do anything should I make the plunge.

"Data inconclusive," admitted STAR, and I had that sinking feeling one gets before they make a life or death decision. I only had to wait a heartbeat before I chose though, and we dove forward, the feeling of weightlessness coming over me despite the gravity, as everything around me exploded outward.


	6. Roll of the Dice

The feeling of falling into the vortex was odd. Tingly in a way that was similar, and yet fundamentally different from hyperspace. For one thing, I was aware the entire trip. Despite the twenty four hours that passed in the journey, I was still thinking the whole time, just unable to move. My thoughts were not pleasant ones either, as outside, the universe had been replaced by swirling energy and storms, lightning playing along the hull that didn't even seem to feel. Finally, mercifully, the wormhole spit us out on the other side, the sense of gravity collapsing back in on itself as I came to a halt, and then looked around.

"STAR! Where the blazes we?" I demanded as I pulled back on the throttle, slowing us as we nearly were shot out of the system by the force of our expulsion from the vortex.

"Calculating now...we are in the Waypoint system, a star that is, as far as my charts are concerned, completely disconnected from known hyperspace routes," as he spoke, STAR showed off the map of the galaxy, allowing me to see the route we'd taken in relation to known stars, and I whistled in appreciation. We were way, way outside the range of a typical hyperspace jump, and without lanes, we could rest a moment. Sighing, I took stock, seeing my fuel gauge was already at almost enough for a jump thanks to our wormhole, and STAR was already calculating a way out...WHIRWHIRWHIR!

The alarm sounded, and my thoughts scattered. Behind us, the vortex was spinning in an odd way, seemingly twisting on itself, before out of it came shapes. At first they were stretched beyond recognition, like pictures that had been grabbed at both ends, but then they slowly resolved, and before my eyes, all five of the Falcons appeared, their hulls gleaming, and their weapons glowing.

"They followed us?!" I said incredulously. There was no other word for what I was feeling. This was madness. What I'd done should have been suicidal, and yet, they must have followed within hours, if not minutes, even their reserve pursuing me now, and our arrivals at similar times due to the time lapse involved in wormhole travel.

"Affirmative sir, they appear to be charging weapons and closing at speed. I'm afraid I cannot see a path to avoid them," said my AI companion, showing all the scenarios he could come up with, not one of them resulting in our getting away from this.

"We aren't dead yet! Are there any lanes out of here?" I asked, and STAR found one in almost that same instance. I didn't wait for any word on his part, instead just punching in the coordinates, and jumping. I expected this action to buy us a few minutes, at most, but I'd made one miraculous escape, maybe another was in my future. With that feeling of weightlessness that comes from a jump, I went into the stars, the negative of an image in my eyes telling me that we had jumped just as beams of green light swept our position.

When I came back to myself, the world resolved into another new system, a pair of stars at its center, and a name on the map calling it Heia Due. Knowing they would be right behind, I began to plan, trying everything I could to think of a way out of this, only to have my thoughts interrupted when a beacon popped up on my scanners, a landing beacon in a system that should have been uninhabited. That brought me up short just long enough for a signal to come in, that STAR put up on a display in front of me.

"This is Allhome control. Your ID and engine signature are not on file. Please confirm, you are human?" said an oddly accented voice, which chittered a little on the c's as it spoke.

"This is STAR's Flivver, a human ship, yes. We're currently running from a group of pirates that…," as I spoke the five Falcon's entered the system, their weapons heating up the moment they stopped, and I gunned my engine, heading straight to the beacon I'd been talking to. I would choose the unknown devil over the one I knew any day of the week, and I was entering orbit of the planet just as the five Falcons found me.

"Those are the pirates?" asked the weird voice.

"Indeed, they want to capture me, alive," I said, and got a set of chittering noises from the comm, followed by another set, this one deeper, as the two aliens spoke.

"We are launching a Beetle flight, please hold position," said the first, and I complied instantly, hitting the retro boosters to maintain position, even as the Falcons came towards me.

"Mr. Sage, I believe our chase is over now, please sur-," began Bernard's voice again, but before he could say much, a huge ship came towards us from the planet's surface, joined a few seconds later by several dozen smaller ships, each one of an unknown design to my computers, but with engine outputs and shield levels that dwarfed the Falcons by an order of magnitude or more.

"This is Hai Commander Joe to incoming Falcons. STAR's Flivver has claimed you are pirates, and thus are under the protection of the Hai. We do not wish conflict with human vessels, but we will do so if it becomes necessary. If you will land, however, we might come to an arrangement," said a voice I recognized as the deep chittering one from before. It was odd though, this one didn't have the same accent, speaking gal-standard fluently, with a tone that spoke of peace.

"This is none of your concern, Commander. This criminal has escaped justice for many days now, and will be captured. If you interfere in our operation, we will fire upon you," said Bernard over the open comms, and I stayed stock still.

"STAR's Flivver, are you a criminal as well?" asked the Hai, and I considered my answer carefully before I responded.

"I am not, and would happily submit myself to you, Commander Joe, if you wish it," I offered, figuring if they were interested in justice, I would at least have a chance to make my case. Before anything else could happen though, one of the Falcons fired, rays of green light shooting out towards me, and forcing my small vessel to blow open an airlock to avoid. Bernard's voice came over the comms, admonishing the idiot who fired, but it was already too late to do anything about it, and he ordered the other ships to join in.

Almost instantly the battle became a chaotic stream of light and missiles, with my tiny ship tossed around in the maelstrom. The Flivver was known to be fast, but as missile, lasers, and even a few shuttles flew at me, I got to see how fast, flipping, juking, and even spinning in place once, to avoid incoming fire. The other ships proved less agile, but were far more powerful, with the Falcons firing wildly into the alien armada, taking down several of the smaller ships, but their blasts seemingly useless against the largest vessel, its wedged shape moving ominously towards them as it fired strange missiles and other weapons.

The battle took almost an hour, as Falcons were known for being strong, but five command ships against a battle fleet was not an easy battle to win, and by the end, the pirates were defeated, three of them flying off, while two were blown to rubble, with Bernard telling me about how I would not escape him next time. The Hai Commander then offered me a landing on his planet, and asked to enjoy his world, saying that he would like to meet with me at my earliest convenience, as his slightly damaged command ship descended back into the atmosphere, and I followed shortly after, to repair my ship, and to learn of those who'd saved me.


	7. New Arms

"The Hai were...interesting, yes, let's go with that. It's the least insulting way I can put it, and I really don't hold any ill-will towards them. The Hai, in physicality were most analogous to squirrels, giant bipedal squirrels. That...should not have been possible, but I suppose the universe has shown me weirder things in my day," as I say this, I run my hand over the controls in front of me, the floating lights seeming to waver at my touch, but still giving the commands I wanted to the ship around me, which rumbled and whined as it came to life.

"After meeting with a pair of locals, both of the Hai and human variety, I learned a lot. This area of space is controlled by the Hai, but they welcome visitors, including humans. Apparently the Republic has actually known about these people for some time, but has decided in their infinite wisdom to suppress knowledge of them. The Hai seem to think they do this in a peaceful way, but the look that man gave me while talking about it said all that needed to be said. I'm not supposed to tell anyone about this place," I said to the systems around me, hearing the chirp and whistle as systems were checked.

"Upon untangling myself from that, I decided to meet with the one who saved me in space. Turned out to be Commander Monkey Joe, otherwise known as...I can't say it. Her, as it turned out, real name is a series of chitters and squeaks I don't think my throat could reproduce, but she turned out to be a nice lady, with a lot of knowledge about the local stars and stuff. She even suggested, when I commented on her ship, going to Hai Home, their homeworld, and purchasing one for myself," the sounds of startup continued, as a chair seemed to fold out of the floor, and I sat on it.

"This turned into a discussion on what form of payment they wanted. Turns out, Hai like certain goods from Republic space, and so Republic credits are good here. Heck, most of their planets even have GalStandard Banks on them to facilitate money transfers. I quickly found myself adventuring into their space, and after a bribing my way onto Hai Home, I had enough left over to purchase two dozen of their huge ships, trading in my Flivver for the one I'm in right now," as I say the last words, STAR finally pops up, his form still holographic, but looking more...solid than before.

"All preflight checks completed, Commandant. The fleet is ready to move out," he told me, and I nodded, looking over the controls, and then at the views showing the crew. They were a mixture of Hai, Human, and even a few Quarg who happened to be in Hai space. Most had been told I was going to trade out living crew for androids back in Republic space, but that seemed to bother them not at all, so they had signed on with me. Making a pass over of a few ships functions, I pressed a button, and suddenly had holos of all my ship captains hanging in the air before me.

"Alright everyone, this is my first time commanding a fleet, so I want to indulge a bit. Sound off, and get into formation as you launch," I ordered, and got the names of the Captains, stand ins for their ship names as I was uncreative at such things. Monkey Joe herself had taken a position in my command, resigning her commission with the Hai(a process as simple as saying she was leaving), and deciding to adventure with me. Another was a Quarg. He/She/It/I-refuse-to-ask had actually approached me upon hearing I was hiring captains, and despite missing their right arm, they proved to be quite a pilot, easing their ship out of the port in a very graceful turn.

Soon my fleet was in the sky, the blue tint of the air peeling back and diluting until only the black of space remained, a blackness that was at once terrifying, inviting, and beautiful, with a million shimmering diamond stars painted in the softness. Ships, a few of them, moved towards us, making sure we were staying on course, and we did, jumping out of system a few minutes after we had ascended, and making our way out of Hai space. Oddly, I had expected/hoped to run into Bernard's fleet, but those Falcons were long gone as we passed back into human territory.

"Oh well, he'll pop back up, probably at the worst time possible," I told myself, wondering just when that worst time would be.


	8. Fire in the Sky, Fire in the Heart

(A/N: I'm sorry to say, the NDR-114's introduced in this chapter, and used in later ones, we removed in update 0.92 due to issues of balance, as even being as expensive as 2 years of salary they still were a bargain. They're still in the code of the game, of course, and can be added back in by modding easily enough, but officially they've been removed. Still, I'm not going to edit the story to remove them, as they become a major part of it, so I'll be adding them back in via the modding as well. Hope you continue to enjoy the story, and hopefully the game as well)

We landed on Shroud, a planet in the Alheka system I remembered sold the androids, NDR-114s, which could be slaved to a single AI control for a ship. I had already talked with STAR about it, and he believed he could not only control the androids, but by placing iterations of himself in every ship of the fleet, he would be able to coordinate everything together at once. It wouldn't be easy, mind, and he admitted that, but with basic functions taken care of, my score and change of captains would be able focus on flying their ships as if they were just scaled up fighters, rather than the massive capitals they actually were.

Having bought the robots, and getting them delivered to my fleet, I then gathered the crews from Hai space, and paid them for their time, even giving a bonus of almost five times what they were owed for the trip, before waving farewell to them. I then slummed the day with Monkey Joe, learning about the Hai and their ways, mostly ones of peace, save for the ones to the north called the Unfettered. Monkey herself though, who's human name had been given by a human she'd met, had wanted more. Not fighting persay, just something different from the peace the Hai were used to. This was the very reason she'd joined their defense corps in the first place.

It was while she and I were enjoying a nice bit of food(Turns out the Hai don't actually like nuts, and are in fact more fond of dairy), that the panic started. Oh at first it was just a few people with their data assistants out, scrolling through the headlines and such. I noticed, but only vaguely as many of them gasped at something, and I paid it little mind. Considering we were in the upper echelons of Shroud, a deeply divided world of haves and havenots I figured it was some market collapse.

Then the big display at the front of the cafe were were eating at tuned in on a scene of horror. A cloud, a mushroom cloud, with an explosion at its base, was forming on some world. At first, I thought it was some kind of asteroid impact on some unprepared world, but then the text scroll showed otherwise. It was Martini, a planet in the Pollox system. The site of the Galactic Stock Exchange, the center of commerce throughout the Republic. The city had been hit, at first information indicating it was some accident, only to shift to being a terrorist attack in mid scroll, followed by the image of a similar cloud on Geminus in the nearby Castor system.

"Get everyone together," I ordered Joe, and the two of us set out, contacting the captains, and then heading to the port. We were a week away, at best, but I wasn't going to not offer to help. I had ships with more than enough room for supplies, building materials, and everything else, and had my bays loaded with whatever I could. When they was done we set out, taking the fastest routes I knew. We stopped by Geminus first. What had once been the site of the Republic Navy's shipyards, which churned out the carriers and cruisers that defended the innocent amongst the stars, was now a crater.

"Atomics, used on human soil. First time that's happened since the Alpha Wars," commented one of the officials I met, offering the goods I had to her to help with the clean up efforts. The woman, an Admiral in charge of the yards, thanked me, but directed me to take them to Martini instead. The yards had been nearly empty when the attack happened, the night crew only, and what had been damaged wasn't stuff replaceable by the same material as civilian buildings.

That was how we found ourselves on in the Pollux system, my bays spilling food, medicine, and everything else, given freely to those in need. The local disaster relief workers, who were expecting it to be weeks before the Republic was able to send someone almost cried as I told the what I had, and with a few signed papers, we sent it out to those in need. A day after landing, our bays were empty, and I was planning on a trip to Sol for more goods, when a man in a sharp business suit came into the port.

"Excuse me, are you Captain Sage?" he asked.

"I was, though I'm properly ranked as Commandant for my command of a fleet," I told him, motioning for the droids to continue taking some non-essentials off the ship, making room for more supplies.

"I'm...congratulations would be in order then, but I'm afraid I have some bad news for you then," he told me, and we went inside to talk. The Hai ship proved to have an ample supply of out of the way places for us to discuss things in private, and I was glad I did, because I didn't want my crew to see me shed a tear. James, the old captain I'd met back when this whole thing had started, almost a year ago now, was gone. As it turned out, Hestia was only a single jump away, and he, along with a group of rich people he'd gotten in with, had decided to make the trip to the Stock Exchange for a bit of money games.

"He had no living relatives, not that are on file anyway. His fortune is considerable, and his last will and testament said to find you, Commandant. He left his money to you. I believe, he also asked that you be given this," as he spoke, the man pulled a disk out of his pocket, handing it to me. We then discussed money, with his fortune, only a few million but still not small, ending up invested in repairs here on Martini and on Geminus. When that was done, he thanked me for my time, and I walked away, making my way to the bridge of the Shield Beetle, and handing the disk to STAR.

"Do you want me to play the contents, sir?" he asked, and I nodded, a bit numb. His holo self took the disk, and then held it in his hand, spinning the crystalline thing in the air as he ran his light over it, taking in every groove in the surface of the thing, eventually projecting a holo beside him, one of a much resplendent looking James, dressed in that same cotton made outfit he'd had on when I'd last seen him.

"Is it on?" he asked some off screen person, and a female voice, an AI probably, spoke up.

"Yes sir, we're recording now," she told him, and James nodded, grabbing a glass and sitting down in a seat that wasn't included in the recording.

"Okay, I'll make this quick then. Sage, I hope this message finds you well, though as you might already know, I'm not doing so hot. As in I kicked the bucket. Heh, no idea how it's going to happen, but then, I'm old. I was hoping to live long enough to make this offer in person, but I know that might not happen, so I'm recording this just in case it doesn't. You see, I have a job offer for you," as he spoke, he held up a hand, and a hologram inside his recording was displayed, one STAR quickly ballooned up to be easier to see.

"This ship, this awful, inefficient mess of a ship, is called a Korath Raider. If it's been long enough for you on the spaceways, you might have heard rumors of them, but if not, let me tell you, they're real. Aliens, like the Quarg or this chipmunk things past the wormhole in Ultima Thule, but far worse. They live on the coreward side of Syndicate space, and they're a damn menace to every captain that wants to make his way through some back roads for a nice honest smuggling job," as he spoke, stats of the ship popped up. It was...impressive. A match for anything in human space really, though given some of the data.

"I'm going to level with you. I mentioned I sold my fleet before ending up on New Boston, which was true, and yet left out an important detail or two. You see, my final mission had me plying those routes, on completely legitimate business, when we were ambushed by one of these things. They jumped in like a Quarg, and just attacked. No warning, no demands for surrender, just blasted away half my fleet, half my friends in a few minutes, then docked, stole everything not nailed down, and blew up the ship they'd stolen from for good measure before jumping out again," as he spoke his voice trembled a little. In fury or sadness, I couldn't tell. Probably a mixture of both honestly.

"I want the ship that did that. Those men and women were fine officers, and great friends. I helped deliver one of my captain's baby's, and both her, her husband, and their child were killed because of some damn pirates. So, here's what I'm offering. These are coordinates where these Korath tend to show up. Go there, with a good troop of marines and some battleships, and you should be able to take the thing down. This info, I think, is worth your time, if only because they have jump drives, something no other captain in the Republic will have," something about that seemed to amuse him, as he chuckled, then reached off screen for a bottle of liquor and took a long slow pull of it.

"More importantly, here's the engine signature of the ship that did this, that took my people from me. I know it's asking a lot, and I won't hold it against you if you choose not to do it, but this old man will rest easier knowing that some of these bastards are sucking vacuum right along with him. What do you say?" he said the last with a smirk and a bit of a twinkle in his eye, before the holo shut off, and I was left alone to stare at the space he'd occupied.


	9. Hunted and Hunters

The Durax system was remote, as in there was just a star, and a few gas giants. Even the moons of those gas giants were unremarkable, without any heavy metals in them at all. This meant, that the system wasn't much of a destination. A few pirates would sometimes hang around, launched from Stormhold in the nearby Alcyone system, but even they only came here to escape for a few minutes. That made it a place to trade illegal goods, things that were hard to smuggle even onto the almost lawless Pirate worlds. I wouldn't judge James, but the fact that he had been in the system at all spoke volumes of the life he'd been leading.

Still, I wasn't going in blind. I knew what I was up against, and I knew what I needed to win. My Shield Beetle fleet, augmented enough to make it forty five strong in addition to my command ship, went to the recesses of the Deep. There I purchased the biggest guns they had. Eight Heavy Lasers, and two Heavy Laser Turrets per ship, enough firepower that I could have taken on a the Quarg, with captains that knew their duty, and ships almost entirely automated, STAR slaving everything to his control and creating a fleet that flew almost as if it were a single vessel spread across space.

I didn't want just firepower though, so I trawled the bars along the ports, putting out the call to mercenary captains and commanders. I was a commodore, with my own fleet, but not nearly enough living hands, as androids wouldn't work without an AI to control them. No, I needed soldiers, real ones, and luckily, the Deep was a place to find them. After going over a dozen applications, I selected one that I felt had the most promise, meeting with Thurl, the Chief Warrant Officer of the group. Haggling a little on details, I hired his company, and soon found myself in the lifeless system, staring at nothing.

"Entering the Durax system now Captain. Not a thing to be seen," said the Merc's AI, NSB, pronounced Ennesby. I was standing on the bridge of their ship, watching as my own fleet entered the system beside us, the massive hulks of the Shield Beetles taking defensive positions around the Bactrian, Serial Peacemaker. The sensors lit up with a whole heap of nothing as they stretched out, one or two haulers jumping out just as we entered, and a pirate or two scanning us, before finding the marker naming us as protected from them, thanks to a bribe I'd paid on Stormhold.

"You almost sound disappointed," I chimed in from my...I suppose you could call it a throne pod. Apparently the leader of the mercenaries I'd hired, a Mr. Tagon, was very much nervous about having me on his vessel, mostly because of the payday I represented. So when I'd requested a seat on the bridge, to observe things, and later to be allowed onto the Korath ship we intended on capturing, he'd had his science advisor construct the thing, so I could be launched to safety, should the worst come to pass.

"No targets might mean a long wait. I mean, I've been reading the articles on the net about these Korath things. They appear randomly, so there's no guarantee that we'll find one any time soon, and that means waiting around with three hundred heavily armed, very bored, very strong men and women," commented the AI.

"We will not find one at all. This is a pointless endeavor and our time would be better spent exploring," chirped a communication channel, one opened to my fleet. Specifically this one was from the one armed Quarg who manned her(As I had bothered asking and found out) own ship which flew just close enough that I could spot it with the naked eye amid the sparkling stars.

"So you've said, Bandit, but James was fairly certain the Korath attacked him, and you must admit, the Syndicate has many reports of similar attacks," I countered, and I heard her make that tsk noise she did whenever she was annoyed, before the channel bleeped that the line was closed. According to Bandit, and backed up by Monkey Joe and the other Hai in my fleet, the Korath were a 'contained' species. Something they'd done had made the Drak, the oft spoken of but never seen protectors of the galaxy, mad, and so they'd been limited to a few worlds.

This, the aliens had assured me, meant they would not have access to jump drives. The Drak would never allow it, as it would defeat the purpose of collapsing the hyperspace routes into their space. Kevyn, the science adviser of the mercenaries, and STAR both assured me that doing that was impossible, but I put some stock into what the Quarg and Hai knew as well. After all, many things were impossible before, like traveling the stars, or defeating the Alphas. All things are impossible, until suddenly they aren't.

"We've got scanners up and running, if we get any cont-CONTACT!" the word was repeated, and then shouted at the top of his lungs, as the bald science advisor was looking through a sensor on the hull of the ship. Instantly the view ahead of us zoomed across the stellar distances, showing at first a single blue star, that then slowly began to resolve, taking shape out of starlight. Hull plates hardened, lights shone to life, and finally great engines roared in the endless sky.

"That...that's not possible," came Monkey Joe's voice over the comms as we all got a read on the ship. It was an ugly thing, inefficient and totally made to overpower through brute force rather than finesse or skill. A hammerhead fore, connected to an stern that obviously contained the engines and power sources. Readings on mass and output made the thing out to be a monster compared to the Bactrian I was in, but a Shield Beetle was nearly its equal, and with forty-five of the things, there wasn't going to be any contest.

"All guns! Disable only!" I ordered, and my fleet shot forward. Each pilot/captain knew their duty, and dove screaming towards the thing, which already had its shields up, and was prepared to fight. I knew from all the reports the Korath took no prisoners, and never offered surrender, so I'd told those under my command to offer no quarter in return. Only the hot green blaze of electrons as they exited the barrels of the ships' weapons, streaming like a river of power through space.

The shields of the enemy ship were strong, and one on one, they would have probably matched my ships in terms of defense. Their weapons were superior, however, as a red beam of light slammed into the leading Shield Beetle, stopping it cold, and even reversing its course, while also doing some damage to the ship at the same time. A follow up stroke sent yellowish bolts that spun as they tracked the ship it had hit away, while twin bays began to open, probably to launch attack fighters.

This resistance lasted less than a second though, as four-hundred-and-fifty beams poured from my fleet. The shields of the enemy vessel didn't even hold for a heartbeat, as each turret was directed by STAR, while the vessels themselves were piloted by my crew, each an expert I'd hired for just this purpose. When the moment had passed, the shield was down, and soon enough, the vessel itself was disabled, the hull scoured in a dozen places, and even punched through in one or two, while the ship itself began to drift.

"Alright, bring us in slowly, Xeno Team, are you ready to deploy?" asked Tagon into the comms as the Bactrian began to move towards the disabled alien vessel.

"Schlock here, my team is ready to get this shiny new gear our client bought us scuffed and dirty," confirmed the one in charge of the invasion team, and I heard the click and hiss of some of the weapons I'd bought for them for this mission. The latest rifles, grenades, and even armor, all of it speced out as the best the Deep had. Custom made too, so it was better than what you'd find at a typical outfitter, hopefully meaning no one would die on this trip.

"We'll be docked in a second, Sergeant. Maxim Twenty-Eight is in play, so be sure not to damage the goods," ordered Tago as we slid into place, a long tube structure coming out of our ship and slowly snaking its way towards the enemy. Within moments I could hear the whooping and hollaring of a dozen voices over the comm, as they literally dropped towards the enemy below.

"Maxim Twenty-Eight?" I asked curiously, as we waited, and the Captain seemed to be nervous about that, like I wasn't supposed to ask.

"If the price of collateral damage is high enough, you might be able to get paid for bringing ammunition home with you," offered Bandit over the comms, and I thought about that for a moment, while the Captain actually paled a little, at least until I smiled.

"I don't mind it to the crew, but I want that ship intact," I admitted, not mad about the order. After all, it made sense, and while Tagon and his crew knew I was loaded, they probably didn't know how much, despite my fleet of warships. Still, before he could say anything else, a hissing sound, cutting torches, could be heard over the open channel, followed a few moments later by a blast, as the crew cut through the Korath ship's hull, and I heard the sound of blaster fire begin to play out, making me more happy than I think it should have.


	10. Upgrades

The fight for the Korath Raider was thankfully, fairly brief. The enemy was numerous, but mostly contained to the front of the ship, with only a dozen or so in the rear section. This meant that the mercenaries could simply toss their nerve gas grenades(Illegal I know, but these bastards deserved little respect) down the corridors ahead of them. After about an hour of this, the Korath were all dead, their bodies littering the floor. I had immediately wanted to join the raiding party, but Tagon insisted that the employer was not to go there till Kevyn had okayed it. I wanted to object, but decided against it. Tagon and his crew knew their stuff, and I wasn't about to interfere where I didn't have to.

"Hmm, smells like it's rotten," I said at last as I stepped out of the connecting tube almost a day later.

"That's the anti-nerve agents we used to clean the gas up. Mind, I don't think it smelled good even before that," said Kevyn as we went over, Tagon insisting on accompanying me, along with Kevyn, the bald man having his glasses, actually high powered computers, display all the info he'd learned on the vessel for easy access.

"Actually, according to Xeno team, it smelled a lot worse than this before. The Korath are powerful, I'll give them that, but this ship is a real mess. Everything is overclocked to the point of burn out, even the heat reduction systems. The weapons and engines are so hot that in any ship except this one they'd have been an expanding cloud of gas after the first shot," he told me, gesturing towards one of the nearby weapon dimples, where a set of NDRs were going over it with tools, scanning it so STAR could compare the tech to known variants.

"Hmm, so you're saying they're running their ship too hard?" I asked, as we walked towards the engine room.

"They're running it hard enough that I doubt they're getting more than a year of use out of any one part, if even that much, and if even one part fails while they're in flight…" he lets that last statement trail off as we enter the engine room itself, where more of the androids, and even Bandit, were going over things, with the Quarg leaping around with those backwards jointed legs of hers, continually swearing in her own language as she stares at a large purple double helix. During one of her leaps, she notices us, and instantly turns herself around, landing lightly in front of the three of us.

"Commodore, this shouldn't be here. The Korath shouldn't have this!" she shouts the last, and gestures with her single arm towards the purple thing, which I don't recognize at all, but figure, considering her tone, must be the jump drive.

"So you say, but they do. Any theories on how?" I asked, and she begins to swear again, but then takes a deep breath and calms herself.

"I can only guess, but none of those guesses are quite what I'd want to be true. Half the systems on this ship are stolen technology, I recognize most of it, so either they're producing copies, or they're literally stealing from a dozen civilizations that shouldn't be defeatable," she complains.

"That would explain the mess. If these parts weren't originally designed to work together, then they might just be shoving stuff into their ships and seeing what works," commented Tagon, and I nod, walking up to the jump drive. I'm about to touch the thing, when Bandit firmly grabs my hand, squating from her usual three meter height to make the grab easier. Of course, as I turn to her, I notice that Tagon and Kevyn have stayed back a bit, and Kevyn is gesturing rather emphatically around him, saying something under his breath.

I don't need to be a genius to figure out what, either. The ship, he has to be talking about it. Mostly he has to be thinking about that nice, juicy reward that Republic offers for alien tech, with a special shout out to the jump drive, a prize that could probably pay their whole company for a year, or make them the best merc company out there, with the ability to jump around the galaxy at a whim. Tagon is obviously conflicted, the look on his face one of longing as he glances at the drive, only to cut Kevyn off with a gesture when he notices I'm looking at them.

"Captain, this capture has pleased me greatly," I say at last, pulling my wrist so that Bandit releases it.

"Yes, I'm very happy, and I think your crew deserves a reward for good work. I'm tripling our agreed upon price, and will allow you to keep the equipment I bought for you," I offered, and Kevyn's mouth just drooped open. The jump drive was a heady prize, but that sort of payout was more than half again what the Korath vessel and the outfits within it was worth. To so casually throw around that sort of cash said a lot.

"Sage, I have finished my analysis of this ship, and will be uploading an iteration of myself shortly to its systems. We will be able to leave for Stormhold within the hour," said one of the androids nearby as STAR spoke through it, and I nodded at that.

"Bandit, return to your ship, I believe I will ride along with the Raider on our journey back," I told her, and she looked at me once, before pointing towards the drive.

"Don't touch it, don't let STAR touch it," was all she said, before walking off, sprinting her way through the corridors. Kevyn and Tagon were then ordered back to the Serial Peacemaker, while I went up to the bridge. When we were all where we belonged, I gave the order, and felt the odd sensation of pull as blue light seemed to consume the world about me.


	11. Pirate's Life for Me

The smell of my own bridge was a comfort. The Hai Shield Beetle I'd claimed as my own was home now, at least in my mind, even if I had to climb the tree like structure to get to it, as Hai tended to build up rather than out due to some evolutionary implanted desires. Still, this was a far sight better than the Raider, and thinking of it, I looked at a display to find the crew of techs from the Republic already swarming over it. They'd apparently been waiting on Stormhold on a tip off that someone was bringing in a Raider, and had offered me four times what the local shipyard would for it.

Of course, I'd just given them the thing, after STAR's androids had studied the smelly ship and determined what was good enough for us to keep. Almost nothing, as it turned out. Sure, the weapons were good, but I prefered beam weapons to impact, and so did most of my captains, so we'd left all those on. The one beam weapon aboard was that kinetic thing, and I'd quickly decided it didn't do enough damage to be useful, so the Republic was welcome to the thing if they thought it would help.

In the end, the only things I'd taken from the Korath ship was the drive, its heat shunt system, and is computer core. The the jump drive was already being installed in my personal ship, and the core as well, which STAR was happy to play around in. The thing was a combination of different techs, he'd told me, much more advanced than anything else the ship had had on it. It included a shield generator, a capacitor for energy storage, and even what he'd referred to as memetic polyalloy repair system.

"Bringing everything online now, Sage," said the AI, transferring his data core, the heart of the original into the new system. The hologram of him shimmered a little, and then I got a lesson in asking more questions, as suddenly a silver sheen covered everything, both inside and outside, startling me and making me draw my personal weapon, whipping the plasma blade out as if I expected an attack.

"Sir, it's alright, just testing the alloy. If I'm right I think I can...yes," as he spoke, the silver sheen vanished, fading back into the colors I was used to, but better. Everything appeared brighter, and it took me a moment to figure out why, as the ship had cleaned itself up, and even repaired a few dents in the walls that I'd noticed only vaguely. A quick gesture brought up external cams, and I could see that the hull had been similarly fixed, with many scorch and score marks that I'd earned since taking command now looking pristine.

"Odd, I can actually feel the wind now, as if the ship were my skin," he said in a distant tone, and then the bridge door hissed open. One of the androids that ran the ship walked in, and between one step and another, the holo flew into it, the android's outer chassis turning into liquid silver. When the liquid metal had passed over it, the droid was now different. Leaner, without the boxy look that was the normal. It also had a face, a perfect copy of STAR's holo face, as he looked himself up and down, moving his hands over his 'skin'.

"Incredible, is this how you organics feel all the time?" he asked, pushing against his silver toned skin, and I just stared for a long moment, before smiling at him. I nodded, and we discussed this turn. The core technology was almost as great a find as the jump drive itself, with it, STAR could use ambient matter and energy to repair our hull. He then suggested that we might disable another raider, for more of these techs.

"I'll contact Tagon then, hopefully he's up for another job," I said, and began to dial up his comm, only for the floating display to vanish as STAR dismissed it.

"Sir, I had some time to study the jump drive. While it is useful to organics only when traveling at interstellar distances, due to the kinetic transference principle, I believe I can use it for short range jumps far more easily, and simply extract the parts we desire," he said this, and then demonstrated, a blue glow suddenly hovering in the androids hand, which resolved into a tool I knew was in a locker five decks below us. A few moments later, I ordered the fleet up. We had some raiding to do.


	12. Curtain Begins to Rise

Four weeks later, the fleet docked at Stormhold. Forty-five ships of a size that matched the largest warships in the Republic. Equipped with enough firepower that nothing on the planet could have matched us. Idly, I toyed with the idea of conquest. It would only have taken a single message, and we could have been fighting the defenses of the whole planet, and probably won. Before I could touch the comms though, we got the typical message, actually sounding bored about my warfleet, asking for the typical 'docking fee', read bribe. I decided for now to just land, my ships falling into the assigned berths easily.

"All captains, you're free for the day while STAR checks the ships over one last time. Rest well tonight, we'll be going into Korath space itself tomorrow," I ordered, and heard a few acknowledgements.

"Commodore, Bandit and I are going to visit a cafe nearby for some quick food that's not ship rations. If you're up for it, we'd like you to join us," offered Monkey Joe, and I considered it for a moment, then shrugged.

"I'll be right there, Joe," I told her, and got a happy chitter in return. I then went over the typical checks with STAR to make sure everything was stepped down and we were at rest state, before walking out of my bridge. Once outside, I turned a moment to look as my ship, and its sisters, shimmered in the early morning sun. Small patches of silver dotted the hulls as STAR reinforced or repaired sections, and I smiled at that, before joining the Quarg and Hai women at a nearby bus stop. We exchanged a few pleasantries, but I got the impression they wanted to discuss something deeper, so I let them hold their silence, until we were all sitting around a table.

"What is this about, ladies?" I asked at last, sipping at my drink, and the two turned to each other. It was, if I were honest, amusing to see the oddly human Quarg, and the not even close to human Hai having almost duplicate expressions, but I was struck a bit by how serious they appeared.

"Commodore...Sage, I know why you're planning on doing this, this other human, James, meant a lot to you," began Bandit, her one arm gesturing emphatically towards me.

"I don't know about that, honestly. I knew the old man for only a few weeks, but it was nice to find a friendly face. So many on New Boston, my homeworld, were not very nice due to some issues with my family. James treated me like...like an apprentice I'd suppose. Without him I'd probably have wandered a lot more south, and probably never found the Hai at all," I explain to the pair, and they seem to take a moment to process that. I hadn't actually shared much info about James after all, but still, I think the tone of my voice told the two aliens enough.

"Still, he trusted me with this, and I want to see the duty he gave me through to the end. Even in three weeks, defeating almost four dozen Korath ships, we haven't found the one that got him," I say this as the food arrives, and I quickly jam a breadstick into my mouth, chewing it very deliberately so the pair can have a moment. They speak in that chittering Hai language for a moment before Joe turns to me.

"So you're planning this venture merely for vengeance?" she asks.

"Not merely, though that's a lot of the reason. Even more, I want to see if the Korath have any more toys we can steal, and hopefully convince them to stay out of human space," I say at last, swallowing the mouthful.

"We have not lost a ship yet to this quest, but Korath space itself...If they have jump drives, it is not certain what defenses their worlds might have. We believe, given this, it might be best to contact the Drak instead. Allow them to deal with this," said Bandit, and I mulled that over for a moment. The Drak, the legendary, oft mentioned 'Guardians of Peace'. Stories of them were common among aliens, but to date, no human had seen one. Still, their influence was felt, as several worlds were in states that spoke of having great civilizations on them once, reduced to ash with weapons humans simply couldn't conceive of.

"And how would we go about getting their attention?" I asked, considering it. I was a free spirit, a man of a line who wished to roam the stars forever. The idea of the Drak telling me where I could and could not go sounded horrible, and yet, I knew that sometimes limits did need to be set. If I could speak to one, I would at least listen to what it had to say. I might not go along with it, but I'd listen.

"The Ring in Hai space is capable of establishing a communication line with some of them," suggested Bandit, and I raised an eyebrow.

"There's a Quarg Ring in Hai space?" I asked, curious now. I hadn't adventured far in Hai space. I wanted to, mind, but at the time, I'd also hoped to run into Bernard and his crew, so I'd rushed to the wormhole. Then the bombings had happened, and then this quest. I still planned on doing the adventuring, but for now, I had other priorities.

"Yes, why else would a Quarg have been nearby?" she countered, as if the idea of not being near one of their Rings was unthinkable. I would have questioned that, but then I figured it might really have been that way. After all, One Armed Bandit hadn't given me much of her personal story. I didn't even know how she'd lost her arm, which I'd figured was the reason at the time for her being away from her people.

"Alright, and what would the Drak do in this case?" I questioned, moving the conversation back on track.

"It depends. Jump drives are forbidden to certain species, with the Korath being one of those. Either someone is supplying them, which means the consequences will fall on them, or the Korath are somehow stealing or producing them. In the former, likely the Drak will destroy their fleets. In the latter, whatever shipyards they have," said Bandit, and I nodded again, starting on my meal again to give me a moment to think. The ladies, after a few seconds, did likewise, and we ate in silence as I ran over everything in my head.

"Alright, I've made my decision," I said at last, as I downed the last slice of my pizza, and the two looked at me expectantly.

"We're going to go to Korath space, just a quick look, with the whole fleet in tow just in case it gets dicey. We know where one of their systems is, Kor Zena'i, right off the Polaris system. Shangri-La is in that system. If we have to jump out quick, that would be a place to fall back to. If the Korath pursue, they have the best chance of helping us. If what we find is bad enough, we'll hightail it to this ring, and call in the Drak. Otherwise, we fight until we find the ship I'm looking for. I want to be the one to strike them down, not some mystical space gods," I tell them, and what followed after was silence, as they both seemed to consider my words, before finally, Monkey Joe rose.

"That is the best we can hope for, and it allows us to inform the Drak of what's going on in more detail. I believe it is acceptable," she said at last, and Bandit soon stood with her, nodding, before striding off in that loping gait of her's. I watch the pair leave, and climb onto a bus. I know this isn't the last I'll hear of this, but it is probably the best outcome I could hope for. Paying our tab, I soon follow the pair, so I can return to my ship. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day after all.


	13. Vengeance for the Fallen

"Entering jump in five seconds, all ships, prepare for combat," I order, the line of warships behind me looking almost like a glistening silver band across space as STAR allows us to nearly touch thanks to his coordination. I watch my screen, waiting for the heady rush, and then feel the weightlessness of the blue light as my ship leaps out of the Polaris system, and into the Korath system nearby. When the light fades, my hands go instantly to the controls, throwing out every scan I can to find the Korath.

"I think we were expected, sir," says the AI, and I look up towards a display, and want to curse, but can't think of a single swear that's adequate to the task at hand. In front of my fleet, my seemingly invulnerable horde, was a fleet of seemingly equal strength. A full compliment of twenty five of the Korath Raiders, and five unknown ships of similar make, but far large. Ton for ton, they actually had us beat a little on mass, and I instantly started to call up the map to plot a return jump, only for my hand to freeze as a familiar beeping comes from the console nearby.

"Sage, we appear to have an incoming transmission, from the foremost ship in the nearby fleet," says STAR, and I find my brain refuses to process that. The Korath never tried to speak to me, or anyone else I knew of before. For them to do so was wildly out of character, and yet, it was just interesting enough to make staying here worth it despite the danger.

"STAR, patch us through, and get the other captains on the line, but no chatter from them unless it's important," I order, and soon have the faces of my crew floating in the air behind a screen that soon shows the Korath commander, whose face appears to be grinning at me, though it was hard to tell with the way they looked.

"This is Commodore Sage, independent trader, to whom am I speaking?" I ask.

"Kon trath-ah, humani kot," says a harsh voice, spitting out the syllables at me.

"STAR, do you have that language on file?" I asked, hoping that somehow we'd know what he was saying. Unfortunately, the android nearby shook his head.

"I'm afraid not, Commodore," he informed me, and this time I did swear, but before I could do much, Bandit's face pulled itself out of the crowd, and floated in front of me.

"Sage, I know a little of the Korath tongue, if you'll indulge me?" she offered, and I motioned for her to continue. What followed was something like a shouting match in a language I couldn't understand, and more than once I nearly ordered the fleet to fire, but I held off. I didn't want to interrupt the discussion, though, in the middle of it, STAR leaned closer to me.

"Commodore, the lead ship of that formation, it's the one," he told me, and then displayed a small screen over his hand. On it was the scan James had given us of the ship that had so decimated his trade fleet, while beside it was the ship currently talking to one of my captains. The two had a few differences, but luckily James had encountered them only a year or so ago, and engines didn't change that much in that time.

"Disturbing," was all I said, waving him off as Bandit seemed to finish with her discussion.

"What do you have for me?" I asked the Quarg.

"Not much, I'm afraid to say. I can understand maybe one word out of every three, but if I'm right, these ships are assembled to do battle with us," she said, and I nodded.

"They knew we were coming?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. They knew about our taking their vessels, and that may have told them we were stealing drives, but I have no idea how they'd know we'd be here," she admitted.

"Then why haven't they attacked?" I followed, trying to understand the logic of our situation, as the two fleets stared at each other.

"That...I believe they wanted honorable combat. They feel that if we defeat them here, and now, we'll be adding them to our procession. Korath believe that when they die in battle, they are added to the army of the one who defeated them. To die to a strong opponent is considered an honor, and apparently they feel we're quite strong indeed," she told me, and I nodded, before pressing a few buttons on my controls.

"All captains, prepare for combat. STAR, coordinate our attacks. Focus fire on the front ship first, then each in turn. I want these ships to be expanding clouds in the hour," I ordered, getting several confirmations. After that, I focused on the Korath captain again.

"Bandit, please tell him I accept his challenge, but wish to know one thing. How long has he been the captain of his vessel?" Bandit's eyebrow raised up quizzically, but she asked the question without needing to be told why. The Korath captain answered with a tone that said he was curious as well.

"If I'm right about the time units difference, somewhere in the area of twenty years, Commodore," she said, and I smiled at this, nodding.

"Alright, STAR, let's move forward," I ordered, and then felt the shudder of the deck as my ship began to lead the charge. The rest of my fleet formed around me, ships above, below, and to the side, a solid wall of Shield Beetles that came on like a silver wave. The Korath ships, seeing our advance, charged as well. Ragged lines, not the sharp, crisp ones we had. Each ship seemed to be trying to accelerate ahead of the pack, their powerful engines faster than ours, but hotter too, giving us plenty of heat to lock onto.

Then the battle was joined. At four light seconds away, our beams fired, a torrent of green light shining from each of us towards the enemy. The lead Korath ship, the one that had so harmed James, was engulfed in that river of power. Shields lasted a heartbeat against such an assault, and the hull only a few seconds longer. When the light faded, the ship wasn't there anymore, not a single gram of its hull solid enough to be seen by the naked eye, as every atom was carried away in the light of vengeance.

The rest of the fleet, seeing their leader dispatched with such ease, fired into my fleet. Red beams pushing my ships away, the bolts like swirling stars slamming into shields, doing great damage. But they picked their targets without coordination, without thought to the overall battle save a few that focused on my own ship. The rest picked randomly from amid my fleet, and I quickly showed them the folly of such disorganization, as I picked targets, and my fleet destroyed them, the first pass between our fleets leaving a good half of my fleet with weakened shields, but more than a quarter of theirs were just gone.

The larger ships hit us next, the huge behemoths were strong. Enough so that my beams took several seconds to destroy them, but destroy them we did. By the time they had come out on the other side, two of the five were simply gone, and a third was drifting, dead in space. And while they accelerated away faster due to their engines, my fleet turned faster, and slammed into their rear. With none of their forward facing weapons able to be brought to bear, we could fight with impunity.

A few minutes was all it took, blasting away the Raiders, and disabling the remaining 'World-Ships' as Bandit called them. When it was done, STAR brought us to bear, and we docked with the large vessels, finding only a few things of note in their hold. No jump drives, sadly, but a core far larger than the one of the Raiders. Taking that filled our hold, but we were able to transfer them between vessels, so that three of the massive computers were in my fleet, waiting to be installed when we returned to human space.

"James, you can rest easy now," I told to no one, and then made ready to leave. Just before we did, however, another transmission came, from a small station orbiting one of the worlds in the system. Curious, I answered.

"This is the Foremost of the Korath-Ah. Warrior, you are to be granted an audience with me. Dock with my station, and I will receive you as befits a true paragon of the dance of death such as yourself," said the transmission simply, and then cut off.


	14. The Fate of All Empires

The station was quiet. No, that wasn't quite right. The station had noise, but not the noise of a station. The slamming, metallic sounds as ships dock and undock, the hiss and bubble as fuel is pumped between tanks, or the grinding as dents were buffed out. No, this station had a different set of noises. A gurgling noise, as outside the walls, the hull was almost solid silver, the memetic polyalloy, liquid metal, was taking shape, growing out like living flesh. The inside was not bare of this silver sheen either, with many a surface shimmering in the low light as it morphed into the hall I walked down.

Behind me were the figures of Joe, Bandit, and four of my other captains. Outside, with weapons trained on the station, were the rest of my fleet, ready to atomize our killers should it come to that. I doubted it would, however. After all, if they'd wanted to kill us, there were easier ways. The hull showed that off clearly, and I had some suspicions on what exactly the battle in space had meant, as it had been just a little too perfect. Each side had had almost equal force in terms of power and mass. That sort of setup didn't happen by chance.

"Greetings to you, Warriors," said the voice from before, and confirmed it had been the speaker, not some translator, doing the talking. The words echoed around us, as if coming from the hull, and both the aliens, and the three women and man in power suits, instantly scanned the room, drawing weapons. I didn't bother, however, instead continuing to walk forward, out into what would have looked like a throne room, with a dias and everything. I knew it was a recent addition to the station though, the silver walls only just taking on other colors as I watched.

"And to you, Foremost of the Korath-Ah," I said in stride, coming up to the foot of the dias and standing there. Before me was...the oldest man I'd ever seen. He wasn't human, that was for sure, but he appeared to be close to it. However, even if he wasn't human, the shaky way his limbs moved, the fact that silver liquid was obviously assisting him meant this being before me was ancient.

"You must have questions, in regards to the great contest. Ask them, and I shall answer as best I can," he offered, and Bandit, her hands holding twin plasma blades, stepped forward, brandishing one of her weapons, and trying to stand up tall. I put a hand on her hip, and her gaze looks down at me. She appears about to object, but I shake my head, and the Quarg at last stands down.

"I have many questions, but first, I'm going to ask this one, as it seems the most relevant. How many Korath-Ah were on those ships. Real ones?" I asked, and I heard at least one of my captains gasp, though I didn't know which. The old man before me, just stared for a moment, then chuckled in an all too human way.

"And why do you suspect that there was anything other than Korath-Ah on those vessels?" he asked plainly, coughing once, and putting a four fingered, two thumbed hand to his chest, before sitting up straight to face me.

"Because that fight was too easy. We won without a single casualty, just some damage. More, I can see the hull of this station. You're making more ships, a lot of them. Enough that, if I were to hazard a guess, you could replace every ship in that force. Yet, despite this, I saw not a single living being on this station. Put two and two together there, and I surmise that those ships, even though we saw the people manning them, were manned by androids like the ones on our own ships, and you were here giving the orders. Am I wrong?" I ask, and the old man barks out a laugh again, before shaking his head.

"You are not, Young Warrior. The Raiders and World-Ships you faced were of the Korath-Ah, the Caste of War of the Korath People. Long ago, they would have been manned by living examples of us, but today, too few remain, and those that do, are like myself, husks of a bygone day," as he spoke, he waved his hand, and I was witness to his history, played out in moving silver scenes, as forms rose from the floor, and acted out battles, both flying in ships, and fighting armies on the ground. It was a grisly sight, to say the least, as the Korath-Ah seemed to revel in butchery and destruction.

"Before the Drak unmade us, we were the greatest conquers this galaxy had ever seen. The Ah, the First, leaving behind our worlds, and venturing forth to claim worlds in the name of the Korath. With Silver Blood, any technology we found was ours, and any advantage an enemy had was lost the moment after we captured it," as he spoke, the scenes were replaced with a galactic map, with worlds that were branded with what I now knew to be the symbol of the Korath.

"Then the Drak stopped you?" I guessed, and the Foremost shook his head.

"The Drak would not care about such. To them, one species is as good or as bad as another. No, they would not have cared one wit about the Korath-Ah's conquest, even should it come to dominate the galaxy," he explained.

"No, what they feared was the Za. The Korath-Za, the Last. We were the Caste of War, always the ones who expanded our reach through martial effort and conquest. The Za were the opposite. The expanded inward, always looking to design the best weapons, they were the Caste of Science," and the scenes replayed, this time with Korath-Za, not conquering, but building. First forging swords, then guns, and finally weapons of all manners of descriptions, including some I simply had no name for.

"The Korath-Za were the ones who brought the Drak down upon us. They were the ones who believed that the sharpest blade could be made by continual use. So they devised the Twin Blades of Korath. The Kor Mereti and the Kor Sestor," and now the scenes were replaced with obvious robots. Boxy looking things, that actually resembled the NDRs back on my own ships, but ones obviously designed for more warlike purposes. The Korath-Za who built them set them against each other the moment they were ready, and in the crossfire of the two, both their makers died.

"I see. They made robots to fight each other, and with the Silver Blood you use, they'd be able continuously improve, until they were literally unstoppable," this got a very nice swear from Bandit as I spoke, and I actually had to wonder about things.

"What happened to them?" I asked, watching the scene continue, the robots always getting better as the hit each other harder and faster.

"The Drak noticed this battle, this war amongst the Endless Sky, space as you would call it. They collapsed the hyperspace lanes leading to our space, and then sealed us in. We fought, as we were want to do, but our greatest weapons were naught but toys to the Drak, and they swept us aside, and broke our people," this time no scene played, nothing, just emptiness as the silver liquid melted into the floor.

"So we were cast out of the stars, and made low. To the galactic north, I believe you will still find the Twin Blades, always slashing at each other, never strong enough to conquer one another," he said, and then displayed a small area of space. I quickly took a shot of it with a small recorder I had, to give the information to STAR later.

"What changed then? Obviously, you are no longer cast low, considering this station," I asked, gesturing all around us, and the Foremost seemed to consider the question for a moment, before finally responding.

"The Korath-Ah are dying. Only a handful of us, a few hundred, remain. The Drak did not consider that to cage us, was to kill us. They recognize that they erred, and though they could not repair us as they hoped, they could offer us solace in our final days. All the Korath-Ah live now as I do, within the great metal wombs. We send out memories of our fallen comrades into the stars, to conquer and do battle. Should our visions of the past fall, they give gifts to those who defeat them. Should they succeed, the Foremost who made them gains new resources," he explained simply.

I wanted to hate him for that, as such thinking killed humans, a lot of them, and yet...what was left to hate? Though he spoke, this old, decrepit man, kept alive by machines I had no doubt he couldn't understand, probably made by the Korath-Za or maybe even the Drak themselves. This was a man in his twilight years, so far lost in his memories of past glory that he couldn't see what was in front of him. The technology he commanded, if he put his mind to it, could make the world, the blasted scarred world below this station, bloom with life again. What did he use it for? To destroy and conquer, because it was all he knew how to do.

"So, you took from human ships, digesting their resources here into more ships. Is that why you can speak Gal-Standard?" I asked, and he nodded, a few images popping out of the walls of books and players and various other media. Things the ships he'd captured and ransacked had likely had on them. These were the things he'd learned my people's tongue from, even as he'd murdered them.

"How much longer can you survive like this?" I asked at last, and he just shrugged.

"My end comes, it could be within the year, or a hundred years from now, but when I die, it will be the death knell of my people," he said, with a defeated tone in his voice.

"Then you will be forgotten. Such is the way of all conquerors. To live in glory, and die in ignominy," I said at last, and then turned on my heel. We were done here. The old man didn't stop us as we left, nothing came to attack us. I knew I should blow this place away, destroy this fool of a man who was so lost in the past. But I couldn't. The Drak, as much as I felt they sounded terrible, had done this to him. I hated them, not him. I didn't pity him either. I simply felt nothing for him, and soon I launched away, setting course, and jumping away into Polaris, planning to return for more of the larger cores once I'd gotten the ones I'd already taken installed.


	15. The First One Falls

Another three weeks in Korath space, and we had the larger cores in abundance, and enough jump drives to more than double the size of my current fleet when we returned to Hai space. After that, I wasn't sure what I would do. There was the matter of the Unfettered Hai. Joe had spoken of them before as having been 'touched' by the Drak in the same way as the Korath. Better, there was the Korath-Za and the Twin Blades of the Kor-Mereti and Kor Sestor. I wanted to know the story there too, but in any case, a larger fleet would help.

"Commencing Jump to Polaris System," said STAR, as the blue light consumed the world. Behind us was Korath Space, seven systems of nothing but old men and women, so caught up in their past glory that they failed to see a future for themselves beyond it. The weightless sensation came to me then, and the clocks ticked over a day as the jump ended. The instant we were in system, I set course for Shangri-La. Then I stopped, as the scene before me began to come into focus.

Shangri-La was a port system, where one could purchase a ship hull, and that meant it was typically well defended, with great hulks, tiny merchants, and everything in between flying in and out constantly. Right now, there was none of that. The planet wasn't dead or anything, just no one in the scanners was moving, and as I watched, a fleet launched off the surface, in a way that said something particular. More than a hundred Syndicate Protectors with their odd design, and all the attendant vessels, rose towards us, and I stopped, waiting to see what this meant.

"All ships, hold position," I ordered, and every ship in my fleet slid to a stop beside me, with every five ships forming into a massive V, filling the skies over the planet with metal. Before us, the fleet of odd ships seemed to try to get into similar formations, but they seemed to get in each other's way, or to slot themselves in where they didn't really fit. Then the last ship came into sight, and I gripped my seat in frustration. It was a Falcon, and I didn't even need STAR's readouts to tell me which one.

"Receiving transmission, shall I put it on screen?" asked the AI, and I nodded, waiting as the screen before me resolved into a familiar man, and a familiar formation of five seats. Bernard, but alone this time, rather than with the rest of his group.

"Mr. Sage, it have been too long since you last slipped through my fingers," he said, simply, and I growled something at him, before leaning back in my chair and sighing.

"You know what, I don't really feel like bantering today, so I'll offer you this one chance to just leave. My fleet out masses and overpowers your's by a significant margin," I advised him, and as if to make my point, several of my ships began to charge weapons, with his fleet seeming to freeze, as the crews of those ships considered what they were a part of.

"Now, now, Mr. Sage, you above all people should know that power isn't everything. Sometimes it is foresight and planning that wins the day, and sometimes it is simple luck. Today, I'm afraid, our plans are simply too good for your luck," as he spoke, a transmission came from every ship in his fleet, and I could hear it reverberating along my hull as the sheer weight of the message being repeated by so many vessels refused to be ignored.

"For instance, I know your ships are crewed by NDR-114s, the newest model. However, such androids have issues of their own. For instance, they have a shutdown code built into them," he said the last with a very evil smirk, and I turned, looking at STAR's body on my bridge. The lith, metallic form of my AI was moving a little erratically, to be sure, but it didn't appear shutdown, and as I watched, he broke through whatever was affecting him.

"Hmm, now that would be a problem, if my droids weren't custom jobs," I said, getting my own rather evil smirk, as STAR walked over to me, then made a motion where he grabbed his eye and stuck his tongue out at the man on the other side of the monitor, who appeared flabbergasted.

"All ships, open fire on that Falcon," I ordered, and with the speed of a tide, we started forward. Bernard started to say something, but before he could do much, a wash of green light struck his vessel. Where the Raiders at least had the power to hold for a moment against this power, the Falcon was far outclassed. I did get a satisfying view though, as the hull around Bernard buckled, pushed inwards, and then split apart. The image of him being vaporized, his skin burning away, and his scream of pain over the comms...I considered myself a moral man, if not a good one. But it made me very, very happy to see him die.

"Okay, anyone else want to play?" I asked, and the Protectors, after a moment's hesitation, all high tailed it. Where the Korath would have thrown themselves at us regardless, this bunch fled. Mind, I noticed that they were doing so in formation. So this was all one group. Idly, I thought about ending them here, as they might threaten us down the line, but by the time I'd had that though, fully half the fleet was gone, and I decided not to bother, instead landing on Shangri-La, as the ports seem to come back to life.

Oddly, I was unable to find a port authority that knew what had happened. Bernard, to their knowledge, was a representative of the Syndicate that owned Shangri-La. He hadn't threatened, hadn't forced, hadn't done anything other than slipped into power. That was unusual, as to fake those sort of credentials was...not unbelievable, but even for my resources it would have been hard. Still, I filed that away for later. The next day, with the cores installed on my ships, I started north, towards the unknown Korath-Za space, to find out what was going on there.


	16. Secrets and Lies

I stormed into the ring, my eye full of fire, and my feet slamming hard onto the cold metal of the docking pad. Around me, Quarg moved, their massive bodies agilely leaping out of the way as I plowed through them. The first one I found in a uniform, I turned towards, while behind me, I could hear Bandit follow. She'd been on my ship, with her's slaved to mine after our 'discussion' of what I'd seen, and more importantly, her confession. She currently held her second plasma blade in her jaws, her teeth clenched around the hilt, as if expecting battle. What she was really doing was keeping herself from grinding her teeth, something I was doing quite a lot of.

"Where is the Speaker of this Ring?" I demanded, pointing an accusing finger at the Quarg in front of me. The tall alien seemed less than inclined to give me information, but then Bandit flashed her blade once, the blue glow of plasma covering the sword as it sharpened the edge to the thickness of a molecule. I don't know if she was threatening him for my sake, or just doing it because she was frustrated herself, but he gave in, and with a few quick comms, we were on a transport, arriving at a non-descript looking building, and walking inside.

"You should show respect. Remember what I told you," said Bandit, as she took the blade from her mouth, and slid it back into the sheath beside the one she typically held in her hand. I didn't ignore her, I will say that much, but I was still fuming as I walked into the building, and soon found myself standing in something that appeared to be a waiting room, if one designed for someone almost twice my height. It took only a moment for me to be admitted into the Speaker's chamber, something that resembled a low level bureaucrats office.

"Mr. Sage, I was told you wished to speak to me," said a male sounding voice, and I looked up to see the Quarg sitting in a chair behind a desk. He was taller than most, almost five meters rather than the average three, but I would hardly be intimidated now, and took the seat across from him.

"How long?" I demanded, as the seat rose so I was at eye level with him, the scene probably amusing as it had all the appearance of a small child accusing an adult.

"Hmm, now that is a leading question. I can assume many things from it, but I shall instead ask you to clarify your statement," he said in a way that was just below patronizing. Fed up with it, I held out a palm, feeling the silver goo in it shift and mold until it became a holographic display, which then projected a scene in the air before me.

"How long have you know those machines were doing this?" I demanded again, in a hushed tone this time, as the view panned over the scene. It was a horrid one, of sentients, Korath if you looked closely enough, being herded around like pack animals. Their bodies were not marked, and in fact, looked healthy to someone not looking closely, but even in the recording you could see the dead look in their eyes. They were a people without hope, without life, just with existence.

"Ah, the Harvest," he said, in an almost casual way, and I barely kept myself from flinging a weapon of some sort at him. Behind me, I remembered the day I had arrived here in Korath-Za space. It had turned out that while the Ah were barely alive anymore, with only a few of their number remaining, the Za were actually thriving. A few planets and stations remained of their space, and I found many a city standing there, with a few scars here and there to show what had happened some centuries ago, great battles fought that had wounded entire worlds.

I hadn't been able to talk to these, and while Bandit understood them, she would only say that we should travel to the galactic east. With nothing else to go on, I had done just that, and discovered the Ring. A Quarg Ringworld, built in this out of the way place. Here I witness their fleets, the graceful wings of Wardragons, the powerful turns of Skylarks, moving about. Some vanished in flashes of blue light, while others returned in it, their hulls marked with signs of a battle hard fought.

Docking, I questioned those around me. The Korath-Za, they claimed, were their wards, to defend from the great enemy to the east, and they quickly advised me not to make my way there, as it would be dangerous, even for my fleet. I hadn't listened, of course. I was a Sage, I was an explorer, and here was the edge of the unknown, it was not in my nature to back down. So refueled and repaired, we leapt out towards the system connected to the Ring by a hyperspace lane.

I was made to regret that decision almost instantly, as I stumbled into a battle between the Quarg, and two unknown foes, who shot at each other as much as the aliens. The skylances, the fabled beam turrets of the Quarg, were tearing through their foes, undoing them one after another. But even this seemed only to hold back a tide of war, one I threw myself into. With STAR's help, the fleet was able to destroy many of the ships, but when I tried to dock with one that I'd disabled, I found myself nearly destroyed, as the ship selfdestructred, rather than allowing me to take anything from it.

The Quarg thanked me for the aid, but again, advised me to turn back. I once more refused, and then got a look at what they didn't want me to see. Worlds, many worlds, laid waste by war. This had been, according to the Korath-Ah, the heart of their empire once, and now, while the Korath-Za remained on a few worlds, many more were simply gone. But oddly, not in the same way. Every world was different, with different weapons, and different ways of dying. Still, I adventured onwards, finally encountering the Twin Blades, the Mereti and Sestor.

They were the ships that had been attacking the Quarg, but in numbers I had never seen before. A thousand ships of varying sizes, all battling each other amongst the stars. Even when I entered the system their war did not stop, only a few small groups breaking off to do battle with me. I fought them off, their weapons penetrating my shields somehow, and eventually forcing me to land on a planet, where, oddly, they backed off. The moment my hull touched the atmosphere, the ships broke away, and after landing to rest, we launched again, flying further into their space.

Everywhere, it was the same, until finally, we found the world at the center of one, the Mereti world, Sapira Mereti. It was there that I found them. The Korath-Za who still lived here, the Harvest as the Quarg Speaker called it. The horror of it gave pause to my crews, as we watched a load of Korath-Za be shoved into a spaceport, and then transported to the station waiting in space. My sensors told me what was happening in their easily enough, as the Mereti did not hide their atrocities, but rather, reveled in them.

The Korath-Za who lived beyond the Ring were being used as spare parts. Literally torn apart, and bits of them used to close gaps in the Mereti's systems. STAR reasoned, later, that it was a protection of some kind the Za had built into their weapons, they they needed a Korath to pilot them, but the had never specified in what condition the pilot needed to be in. So being placed all over the ship, an eye here, a limb there, and a brain to control it all, fulfilled the requirement in the most gruesome way possible.

"Yes, the Harvest," I said, sneering, and the Speaker sighed in a most human way, his long arm coming up to rub at the bridge of his nose. Beside me, Bandit looked ashamed, but I didn't see that, as my eyes were totally focused on the Speaker.

"We will not order you to leave this pace, but I must ask that you not tell the Korath-Za of this revelation of yours," he said as if he were asking me to step out into the hall and get him a glass of water.

"And why not?" I responded, a bit of acid seeping into my voice.

"Because we can only protect them from the Automata, not from themselves, and if they knew of these events, there would be few ways to keep them from acting against their best interest," he told me, and I leaned back in my chair. In my head, I counted backwards from ten, trying to let the anger and rage I felt seep from my bones. It didn't succeed completely, but when I breathed out, letting go of a breath I'd been holding, I was calmer.

"Then why don't you stop it? Your ships are powerful," I said the last as a statement of fact, not as a question.

"You think we wouldn't, if we could? Powerful though our vessels are, they have their limits, and the very idea of the Mereti and Sestor is they they are always improving. They adapted long ago so that all we might do is contain them, not destroy them," he said, and I was about to respond, when Bandit placed her hand on my shoulder. I almost punched her for it, but the look on her face, held me back, and I gave the matter a bit of thought instead.

"The shield penetration of their weapons. That's to defeat you, isn't it?" I said, and the Speaker nodded.

"It is. Our shields are strong, our weapons even more so, but the hulls of our ships? No, those are weak, for we never before had to have strong metals, and seeing that weakness, the Automata adapted weapons that are completely unique, with the ability to penetrate the shields of our vessels," he explained.

"So you chose to become the guardians, rather than destroy them?" I asked, and the Speaker shook his head.

"No, we did not choose this existence. This was what the Drak asked of us, helping us to build this Ring, and instructing us to keep safe the Korath-Za. It was our own hubris that caused us to believe we could do more, and it is what helped the Automata to create their fearsome weapons," he said, the sadness in his voice almost palpable.

"And again, it comes back to the Drak. Always them interfering," I say, disdain in my tone, and my body language easily seen by the Quarg, who looked none too pleased with my statement.

"Indeed, all life in this galaxy owes a great deal to them. They are the oldest, the wisest amongst the stars. Your people are yet young, and you yourself more so than that. Perhaps when you have traveled farther, and seen more, you will learn that the Drak only have your best interests at heart. They are as close to gods as any being the Quarg have yet met, and we have met many," he told me in that lecturing voice one tended to get explaining something to children that is still far beyond their years. I just barked a laugh.

"The Drak are no where near gods," I told him, and he looked at me, very concerned.

"And how would you know that, young one?" he asked simply, and I smirked at him, while leaning forward.

"Because I killed one. Gods don't die," I responded just as simply.


	17. If the Gods themselves may die

"That...that is simply not possible, your fleet is…" he let that trail off as I leaned forward, the player in my hand projecting a new image, this one of my fleet forming up around an odd looking ship. Like some kind of bug, but huge, larger than any of my Shield Beetles. The thing was all spines and sharp points, a thing designed to look intimidating. It was also very obviously dying, as beams of green energy tore into it, the flesh healing, but just a little too slow as the shots impacted its form, a derelict in all but name, before finally it was washed away by the light of my fleet.

"My fleet was a match for this Drak, and I say we could have taken more," I said, not bragging, but merely stating fact, and I watched in very dark satisfaction as a cornucopia of emotions crossed the Quarg Speaker's face. Disbelief, fear, anger, sadness, and finally, at last, it settled on resignation.

"You, why would you do this?" he asked at last.

"Because he demanded my obedience, and I refused. We were running from the Sestor, I'd wanted to explore everything we could before coming back here. The Mereti were relentless though, and even once they and the Sestor started fighting, some still followed us, so I had my AI, STAR, plot us a course to an unconnected system, figuring the two Automata races lacked jump drive," I explained, and the scene played out as I said, the recording showing my forty-five ship fleet leaping out to the unknown.

"We found a system, with a paradise world. Nothing sentient yet, but we stopped to rest for a moment, then we heard something in our heads," I said, and the Speaker seemed to recoil at that, staring at Bandit.

"You, you went to sacred Avalon? You set foot on a forbidden world? And you heard the Words?" he demanded, and I saw Bandit, strong, powerful, willful Bandit, turn from him like some frightened school girl.

"No, we didn't. I wanted to, but we never had time. The Drak...I'll call it ship, but I'm fairly certain it was just a Drak itself, appeared, and did the telepathic comm stuff. It hurt, made me feel like I'd taken some hard drugs, but we endured. It demanded we surrender to it. I refused, and we fought. We won," I told him. That was the jist of events at least. In specific, I'd asked a question or two, and been told off for my trouble, the Drak saying I was, 'beneath contempt for my intrusion into the garden'.

I had tried to explain, but before I got too far, the thing fired. It was a single shot, but it packed more power than anything I had. Luckily, it was slow, and while it had been aimed well, the thing was still almost a light minute away, so my ships were able to dodge. When I demanded it stop firing, it opened up with some weird turrets, and so I ordered everyone to fire back. I'd expected to die, honestly. The thing was putting out more energy than my whole fleet, but it was slow, ponderous, and it adapted poorly to being attacked from all sides. With STAR coordinating us, we took the thing down in a running fight through the system that lasted an hour.

"You, !?, did this truly happen the way the human describes it?" he asked, saying what I figured was her real name, and Bandit, after a moment, nodded.

"You have committed a sin, a vile thing, and I should have you executed, young one. This human knows nothing of the Drak, but you, you are of the Quarg, and are subject to our laws," he tried to say more, but I rolled my chair into his way, and more importantly, I had a blaster, a small one, aimed right between his eyes.

"I don't care what the hell kind of space religion you guys have, but Bandit has been with me for months, and I've come to like her. Touch her, and I'll make sure you die," I said, and the Speaker seemed to find the very idea contemptuous.

"You would die after. The Wardragons of this Ring number in the tens of thousands, with others that could be built quickly. Even one would give you pause," he told me, and I nodded at the assessment.

"True, very true, but I saw those Automata ships pursue my fleet for several jumps. What if I was to send them out, and guide them here. How many would it take to break your lines?" I asked, the Speaker pausing as he considered this.

"You would truly bring death to us and the Korath-Za, and likely the galaxy when they steal our jump drives? Does your madness know no end human?" he said at last, and I just smiled at him.

"I'm a Sage, dear Speaker, and I fought a Drak. I don't think I have the typical responses to danger as others," I told him plainly, and he just stared at me, before sighing.

"This information, it cannot leave this chamber. I would ask that you delete those logs from your records, and tell the few crewmen you have to keep their memories to themselves. If that is done, I shall allow you to leave here. I will not speak of this to any of the Rings or my people, but the Eighth Ring is now forbidden to you, child," he said, directing the last at Bandit, who nodded gravely at him.

"I've said my piece then. I wanted to know how much you knew, and now I know. You and your gods can go suck space. I may not have the power now, but when I do gain it, I'm coming back, and ending these mechanical monsters once and for all," I said, and then leapt down from the chair. Bandit, after a look back towards the Speaker, followed me. Together, we exited the office, and then started towards the port, silence our only companion for a time.

"That, that was not a bluff, was it?" she asked me after a while, and I shook my head.

"I don't like it when people make my friends feel like they did something wrong because they did something I asked. I'm the Captain, the Commodore. Whatever you do under my orders is my responsibility, not yours. Besides, that Drak, whatever you or your people think of them, attacked us first. We defended ourselves," I told her, and she nodded, her hand slowly going over to the scar on her side, rubbing at it a bit.

"It, it is not the first time I've been hurt because of the ways of our people. The Drak, they bid us to keep an eye on the Hai's northern cousins. That is why the Fourth Ring, my Ring, was made. When I was patrolling their space once, a few months before you found me, I was ambushed, my ship destroyed. If the Drak would just deal with them, or the Speaker try to find some solution to the Unfettered, I would still be whole," she said, and I stayed silent, never having heard why she was injured before, and daring not to speak.

"My wound could be repaired, of course. The Ring has wonders on it, things you, as a visitor are not allowed to see. But I didn't want wonders, I wanted freedom. If I went back, I would be repaired, and then set to guard again, because that is what we must do, it is what the Drak asked of us. If they're gods though, why do we suffer for them?" she asked the last of no one in particular, and I sighed at the question, unable to think of a good response.

"I was ordered to meditate on that, and told to stay in Hai space until I found my answer, my wound a reminder of what the Drak would gift me with, should I serve them well. I am more convinced now, however, that such gifts come at too high a price. You have shown me things that I never would have seen. Not all of them are pleasant, I'll admit, but still, they are new, and I wish to discover more," she said, turning to face me after looking out a window for a long moment.

"Then let's find something else new. STAR says he scanned a hell of a power source out in the Mereti space, in a disconnected system. We can rush past the mechs, and investigate it, then we'll see what the future holds for us," I told her, and Bandit smiled at me, as we made our way out of the transport, and to our ships at dock.


	18. What does that mean for you and I?

"Meerti ships closing," said STAR's voice, but I ignored him, watching the gauges of my ships' fuel tanks slowly creep higher. I'd been discovering, over the course of my explorations of Korath space, that jump drives were power hogs, and I'd been letting the ramscoops keep us topped off, just in case. In most systems, that meant fighting off some small patrols, but here, deep in the space controlled by the Mereti, it meant a lot more, and while I wasn't going to risk too much, I wanted to have as much leeway as I could on jumping to the new system.

"They will be in range in four seconds," he warned, and I nodded.

"Alright, engage jump, let's find out what's in the Sayaiban system," I said, wondering why the thing, a system disconnected via hyperspace, was marked in the Korath-Za's star charts. I figured it might be some kind of sacred star or something, but it didn't feel that way. No, something about it felt important, and with a power reading strong enough to detect from this far away, my curiosity was peaked.

"Jumping now," he advised, and blue fire consumed everything around me, the feeling of weightlessness lasting for a moment, before I collapsed back in on myself. My first warning that something was wrong were the sirens, as alarms and such blared out at me that I'd done something probably more than a little stupid. About me, I could see a star system, but an odd one. It was as if there was a fog over the whole thing, and some of the planets, and even the local primary appeared to have been consumed by some great giant.

"STAR, plot us a course out of here!" I ordered instantly, and got a confirming beep from him, watching as the displays began to show the calculations needed for the jump. Even as they worked though, I could see the shields of my fleet being slowly eaten away at, even if the only sign of an attack was the occasional spark. Then whatever was doing it started to get through to the hull itself, with some sections of my personal ship suddenly exposed to vacuum, only to seal back up a moment later.

"Calculations com-erk-calcu-dweep-ERROR-ERROR!" the last two words made my heart drop, thinking something had happened to STAR, only to see something far worse on the sensors. Five Drak, Archons my scanner helpfully supplied, moving into position to blow us away.

"All ships, brace for combat!" I commanded, but I knew from the shouts on the comms they were having issues with their systems as well. The androids were controlled by STAR, or at least, a version of him installed on each ship. With whatever was happening, the droids were no help at all, and a single person simply couldn't fly a Shield Beetle, let alone fight in one.

"No, I will not let them ruin this! I was happy!" I heard Bandit shout, and then her ship, somehow, started forward, moving at a speed I would have deemed impossible, if I didn't see the shields drop, and the hull start to dissolve as she charged towards the Drak. I wanted to say something, wanted to shout out, but even as she accelerated, everything else seemed to slow. The shield drain, the hull damage, the voices of everyone in the fleet. Only the Drak moved normally, and they swept towards her like a tide.

"Why did you come here?" said a voice, and I recognized instantly that it was the Drak using their telepathy again. Unlike before though, this voice felt...motherly. It didn't sound feminine, but then, it was in my head. The tone of the question though, it was one of concern, as the ships came up to Bandit, and then shone blue lights at her, ones that seemed to halt her advance, and also slowly begin to repair her ship as they brought her back into formation with the rest of us.

"I'm a Sage, one of my line explores the boundaries of knowledge, and to do that means to go to places no one else has ever been before," I answer, the words being drawn from me even without me willing them spoken.

"Hmm, you have found a space none save the Drak have been in in some millennia, but that fact is not without reasons," said the voice, and I can 'see' outside my ship for a moment. Out there, amid the system, I can see the cloud of fog was in fact, a reality, and not some sensor glitch. It was something like the liquid metal in the control core that STAR was using to maintain my ship, and the rest of the fleet. The biggest difference was that this metal didn't repair things, it tore them apart, consuming them until they became part of the fog.

"A grey goo scenario. What happened?" I ask, remembering an old story of what might happen should nanotech run amok. Of course, that had proven impossible outside of sims. Even nanites needed a communal intelligence to continue functioning, a control box, and once they spread out this far, that simply did work as well with speed of light delay. It literally would have driven an artificial mind mad trying to organize all these various bits in real time, and yet, here before me was the proof that someone had done it.

"This is one outcome of the war between the Sestor and the Mereti, to be consumed by each other, and fight over the meager scraps of matter that remain," the voice explains, and suddenly my mind is filled with images of the two ship types I'd seen becoming liquid, slamming into each other, and then turning into the fog that is now tearing apart this system.

"Why are they still here?" I ask at last as the vision ends.

"Why would they not be? They are made to be effective war machines, and while the war has gotten smaller in scale, they still fulfill that function beautifully," I hear the voice say, but I shake my head at that.

"But you have the power, you could end this, destroy them and then the rest of them, free the Korath from what has happened to them," I respond, imagining as best I can, all those worlds we'd seen in the Automata space thriving again, with real civilizations on them once more, rather than just being the hulks of formerly living worlds, which the two non-organic races flew by without a single glance.

"And by what right would we do this? Kill beings of their unique nature?" it asked, and suddenly I was furious.

"If that's your stance, then what right do you have to limit the Korath?! I saw the Korath-Ah stations. They're the same sort of thing as the Automata stations here. You had to have given them those, and limited their range, restricting what the Korath-Ah could do with them," I retorted with a harsh tone in my voice.

"We did, I will not deny it, but we did so because they are dying. That was not the aim of our goals, and knowing they would perish, we keep these Korath Automata races here, in their ultimate form, possibly to be the final marker of the Korath's passing," it said simply, and I felt another flare of anger, but then let it slide away. I needed to be calm, to make my case, not lose my temper when facing five Drak ships which could wipe my force off the galactic map.

"So, you destroyed them, sealed their species away, and now give a few of them toys with which to hurt others, and leave the very things you sealed them up for making around, because you feel they might well be the last things that they're leave behind? That makes no sense," I say at last, and the voice is silent for what feels like hours as it considers my words, or possibly considers how to respond to them.

"You perspective is limited, Child of Earth. I cannot impress upon you how these events play out, but know that my will, the will that guides the Drak, is far greater than any other. See me, and know what I am," it said, and then I saw something. It wasn't through the mental connection either, it was just, there, my sensors picking it up for the first time. Or rather, they were only now truly able to understand it.

The sensors of the Shield Beetle, and indeed any ship I had seen, even the Quarg stuff, were designed to quickly pinpoint planetary mass and stellar energy output, to identify such things that might be obstacles to spaceflight. This meant that they were designed with upper ranges in mind for the scale of such things, ranges that the object I was now seeing passed by entire orders of magnitude, filling the screens, and then some, as it blocked out the stars on one side of the system.

I'd heard once about an old Earth idea for a shell built around a star, a Dyson Sphere I'd heard it called. The idea was to literally surround a star with a shell on which many, many people could live on, absorbing the entire output of the star as power for the shell itself. What I saw now was probably something like that, but every reading said different. Inside that shell was something as powerful as a million stars, as powerful as the black hole at the center of the galaxy, and worse, the thing appeared to be organic in nature. A single organism, larger than worlds or stars.

"Thus we are known. We are of the same make as the Beast, or Nemesis. What you would call Gods are but the merest of our children," the voice spoke, as the thing in front of me faded away, my sensors no longer able to see it as it ceased to allow them to do so. The stars, however, remained blacked out, telling me that it was still there, still waiting.

"You would question us, in a way few have done in many years. We find great courage in that, and grant you a gift. A mission. Far to the north of here, beyond even the Unfettered, lays another race. The Wanders are the healers of broken worlds, and they are in need of aid. Go forth to them, and grant that aid, and they shall in turn aid you. Now begone, much work remains this cycle," it said the last dismissively, and I was about to protest when purple light covered everything I saw, consuming my ships, and teleporting us away. When I returned to myself, we were in Hai space, over Hai Home itself.

"STAR! Status report!" I shouted, and the AI turned to me, his android body twisting in an odd way, as it seemed to consider my tone.

"We are descending into the atmosphere now, Commodore. The local yard has already been contacted, and should have the hulls ready for inspection when we land," he said simply, and I looked around, seeing displays of my ships as they flew into the sky, red starting to cover the bottom of their shields as the air burned at their touch.

"What about Sayaiban? What about the Drak?" I demanded.

"Hmm? What is Sayaiban? I have no record of that word in my systems. As for the Drak, after killing one, I assume they're steering clear of us," said STAR in an even tone, and I was about to protest, when my thoughts skipped a beat, and I suddenly had a headache, a sharp pain behind my eye scattering my mind for a moment.

"But, but, the...I can't remember," I said at last, rubbing at the spot where the pain was worst, only for it to fade an instant later.

"Hmm, perhaps we should ask the Hai for a medical exam when we land, Sage," suggested the AI, and I nodded.

"Yeah, maybe, but after that, I want to take our fleet north. Something tells me the Unfettered are hiding something, and I want to know what," I respond, watching the world below grow ever closer, my mind shifting over to plans to see what might lay beyond the Unfettered's borders, perhaps there might be something north of even them, and that would be something worth seeing.


	19. Unfettered

One Hundred and Eight was a sacred number amongst some old Earth cultures. Of course, I had no idea which ones, and really didn't know why, but I figured it was an auspicious sign that my fleet numbered just that many as we entered the Wah Ki system, Cloudfire ahead waiting for us. The fleet, all Shield Beetles equipped with Korath Cores, human weapons, and Hai everything else, flew like a steel sky over the Hai world, landing lightly, and getting the fuel we needed to continue our quest.

"Alright, once we're topped off, we're heading into Unfettered space. All Captains and Wing Commanders, report," I said into my comm. The One Oh Eight was divided into three wings, with Monkey Joe and Bandit in charge of the other two. Each of us would operate in tandem, but also with a degree of independence that would allow for us to strike multiple targets at once. According to STAR, this was the most efficient use of our firepower, as so far, only the Drak had had enough shields to last even a second against the firepower of thirty-six fully equipped Shield Beetles.

"Bandit here, Day Wing reports ready and able," sounded off Bandit after a moment.

"Monkey Joe reporting, Night Wing is hot and up for a fight," came the chittering sound of the Hai woman.

"Twilight Wing reports as ready," said STAR's android body next to me, and I nodded, watching my tac screen as the various holos of my ships all went green on it, indicating their tanks were full, and their systems passed inspection.

"Alright then, we're ready to go. Normally, this would be the point where I, as the Commodore of a civilian formation, ordered you to hold fire until fired upon, but seeing as we're not a good deal bigger than any currently flying fleet, I'll instead issue this directive. If the Unfettered so much as look at you funny, I want you to turn them into expanding clouds of gas. Clear?" I said, and got several acknowledgements, just before the entire fleet, in three delta formations, shot off into the sky.

"STAR, plot jump course to the Unfettered system nearby," I ordered, watching on my screens as the local star chart came up, the hyperspace lane to the unknown system highlighting. STAR waited, coordinating the fleet's movement so that we all jumped as one, blue fire consuming each of us, and then the weightless feeling coming on, before everything came crashing back down.

"We are now in Unfettered Space, scans indicate a large force of enemy ships are incoming," says the AI, bringing them up on my screens. The force is indeed larger than any the normal Hai had used to my knowledge, consisting of almost a dozen Shield Beetles.

"Okay, contact them, let's see if we can talk our way out of this," I command, waiting as the connection is established.

"This is Admiral Voth, you are to power down and surrender," came the quick reply, as the ships closed in.

"This is Commodore Sage, a human, and currently the leader of this fleet. I have no reason to fight you, but I'm certainly not surrendering either. I merely wish to pass through you space while exploring," I tell him, and a chittering laugh comes from Voth.

"Then you will die, human, and we will claim your fleet as derelicts instead," he says quickly closing the connection.

"Well, at least he's honest. All ships, fall into formation. No prisoners," I order, and watch as the fleet dances, twirling and twisting on itself. The pilots are doing most of that, with STAR giving them the info that allows them to slide into formation so easily. On the other side, the fifteen ship fleet flies onward, either unimpressed, or just trying to act like it as they come towards us, the heat in their systems building as they accelerate and charge weapons. When we're just at the edge of our range, streams of green light fire from us, answered by shots of blue ions from the large cannons aboard our foes.

STAR coordinates us, so that within the first pass, fully half the enemies are gone, and I marvel at the whole dance. STAR, an AI, is quite good at planning, but AIs had proven to be less so at actual combat. In the displays I see the numbers, calculations going faster and faster as he plans out the battle a million ways, but it takes my hands on the controls to implement. AI's like him are simply not built for combat, as the best odds of surviving a battle is to not fight at all, which is why almost nobody uses ships without organic pilots.

"More ships, incoming from out of system," STAR informs me, showing me the hyperspace lanes that are currently building in power. Sadly, the lanes are the ones not pointed back towards Cloudfire, which means they'll be enemies rather than allies.

"Okay then, I think we're done here anyway. All ships, prepare for jump. I want to see the rest of this space before we head back," I order, and then wait as the jump drive is calibrated. Behind us, Admiral Voth's remaining ships turn, their guns already charging for another volley. It spoke well of their training, considering their leader was an expanding cloud of formally meat vapor. Not that we gave them a chance, once the coordinates were entered, we jumped, entering another system full of ships like our own, crewed by beings that were quite a bit different.

"Commodore, we are receiving another transmission," STAR informed me the world resolved, and I got another look at a Hai as it popped up on my comm screen.

"Human scum, Admiral Voth died, but not in vain. The entire fleet of the Unfettered faces you now, and yo-," that was as far as he got before I muted him, and looked at my TAC screen. The information we were detecting was...problematic, even for a fleet of our size. More than three hundred vessels, of varying sizes, with fifty plus Shield Beetles, all in combat formation. It would be a hard fought battle, and I was about to give orders to simply jump out when I noticed one of the larger ships break off from the rest.

"And where are you going?" I asked, zooming my display over to it. I then got to watch as the ship was slowly consumed by blue fire, before it vanished in a flash of light.

"What in the? STAR, that ship just jumped!" I said, and quickly saw I had two more comms waiting for me. A gesture later, Bandit and Joe were floating around me.

"That's impossible, the Unfettered simply do not have jump drives," said Bandit, and I nodded at that.

"Yeah, that's two races that shouldn't, but do. Think they're being supplied by the same person?" I asked.

"You don't understand, Commodore. If they had jump drives on their capitals, they'd already be sending them behind our lines. This makes no sense," retorted Joe, and I could think of no response, instead watching as the band of ships ahead of us began to move into combat positions.

"STAR, can you track where that ship went?" I asked, and the AI seemed to pause for a moment, before the android beside me nodded.

"I believe so, Sage. Jump vectors do leave a certain energy signature. I'm already calculating a course," he told me.

"Alright then. All captains, hear this. We're going to be following that enemy ship that jumped, rather than engaging in pointless fights with the peanut gallery, as I'm quite sure it has a far more interesting story to tell," I ordered, and the ships ahead of us, as I'd been using an open channel, moved even faster, as if trying to catch us before we could depart. Not that they had a chance, as the jump drives flared to life, and just as the first shots were fired, we vanished, moving off into the great unknown.


	20. Meeting New People

We arrived in the unknown system either moments or a day later, depending on your perspective of such things. The enemy combatant arrived only a few seconds ahead of us, however, and got a hell of a surprise, their ship quickly pivoting towards us. Ion cannons opened up, but with only four of those, compared to all the heavy combat lasers in our force, the Unfettered ship was easily disabled, and we moved in. Docking with the ship was even easier than usual, and I pulse scanned it to see what I could find.

"Well, nothing unusual about this one. Expect for the jump drive I mean," I said, more to myself than anyone else. Aboard the enemy vessel were the typical complement of Hai, a lot of which were now gathered around the hatch, waiting for me to insert troops. I chose the better part of valor, however, and quickly had STAR jump their drive into our hold, and then pulled away, blasting as we went. The shots from my guns found no resistance in the hull, and the ship was soon just a memory.

"STAR, did their logs give any indication of why that ship was here, or more importantly, where they got the jump drive from?" I asked, and the AI seemed to freeze in mid motion as he considered the question, his android body just standing there for a long moment, before he finally looked at me and shook his head.

"Negative, Commodore. All information was either personal, or dry for our purposes, I-," he cut off as an alarm blared, and suddenly the tactical screen lit up. The system we were in had hyperspace lanes in it, which led to other, unknown systems. More importantly though, the reason I was being informed of that fact was that some of the lanes were becoming energized, meaning we were about to get visitors.

"Day Wing, Night Wing, take point, Twilight Wing, form up on me. These may be hostiles, but I don't want to jump the gun, so let them come nice and easy," I ordered, and we waited, watching as the energy numbers began to climb higher and higher. Finally, the lanes spit out the ships that were traveling in them, odd alien ships of designs I had never seen before. Things with grace reminiscent of the Quarg, but longer, and with far less power. Of course, that didn't help me much in determining their hostility factor. No, what helped that was when the shapes became hotter, shields and weapons flaring to life.

"Hold fire until fired upon, I repeat hold-," I cut off as the sensors detected something to the rear, a large output of energy where blank space had been before. It didn't take much to figure it was incoming jump drives, and coming in at a close vector. The unknown ships were still almost a light hour out, so more than a few minutes away, but these were being dumped only a few light seconds from our position, and as the jump glow resolved itself into ships, specifically three more Shield Beetles with Unfettered markings.

"All ships, turn about. Those newcomers might be hot, but we know these guys are. Aim for disable only, I want to steal a few more jump drives!" even as I gave the command, I felt the spin as the gravity shifted, our ship coming about and aiming our guns at the Unfettered. It took less than a second for the new ships to find themselves disabled, and my ship, along with two others in my wing, swept forward to grab the drives, flying off just as the rest of the fleet erased the ships from space, and we all turned back to the newcomers.

"Commodore, the unknown ships have stopped. It would seem they do not know what to make of us, so I surmise they do not like the Unfettered anymore than we do," said STAR, and I looked at the tactical screen. The new force numbered in at almost fifty ships, all of varying sizes, but similar designs. So it was a united force, probably from the local government.

"STAR, open a channel with them," I commanded, and soon found a comm screen projected in front of me.

"This is Commodore Sage, independent explorer and human. My fleet comes in the spirit of peaceful exploration. We would be willing to trade information or goods if you desire. If not, we will leave," I said, and waited. On the other end, they were probably discussing what to do. Mind, I also knew if they had no translator with Galactic Standard, my native tongue, than they were probably wondering what in the heavens I'd said. Either way, their response was rather short.

"I'm getting a data stream now, Sage. It appears to be a star chart of the local hyperspace lanes. Specifically, it's one with a large system circled. I believe they want us to go there," offered the AI.

"Well then, let's not disappoint. All ships, we've got a new destination. As we're guests in this space, and no one from here's shot at us yet, I think it best we return that courtesy. That means no firing unless I give the order," I told them, and got back some acknowledgements, before we vanished again, moving towards the system marked for us, where hopefully we'd get some new information.


	21. Communication Error

We had to stop the fleet, briefly, to refuel, using one of the stars along the way to fill our tanks, but after a few days of travel, we arrived. What we arrived at was a question, however, as the world was surrounded by ships of the same type as we'd seen, including everything from small scouts, to large warships, to massive transports. When we entered the system, we tried sending out hails, but the most we got back was a small diagram of the planet, with a place marked on it that had to be a port of some kind.

"All Wings, remain in orbit. I'm going to land now, and I want to try and appear peaceful, but if I have to bug out, you folks are my lifeline," I ordered.

"Confirmed Commodore, Bandit and I will keep everything together," said Joe, and I was grateful for the Hai woman as we began our descent. It was, if anything, the unknown ships moved out of the way, allowing me priority travel down to the surface, where I found a very unique port waiting for me. Rather than massive hangers, or huge stones, this port was kind of an outcropping on a cliff, and it took me only a few moments to see why as I made my way down, and finally looked at the things flying around.

"STAR, confirm for me. Those fliers, are they the ones loading and unloading the transports?" I asked, and the AI in an android body beside me nodded, holographic screens popping up all around me to show me the various avians moving around.

"Confirmed, they appear to be speaking as well, but the language is impossible to translate," he told me, letting me hear the speech a few times, which were odd gargles and the like. Probably a result of their beaks. With no lips, most of their sounds came from the throat directly, rather than being shaped by the lips.

"Atmosphere checks out, I'm going outside to see if they'll talk to me long enough to give you some kind of baseline," I told the AI, who had more than a dozen android bodies waiting for me by the time I got to the offloading ramp, all of which fanned out like some kind of silver skinned honor guard as I walked onto the stone. Around me, the wildly flying avians seemed almost oblivious for several moments, until a small contingent, about eight strong, landed. Their bodies, unlike their fellows, were covered not just with feathers, but with some kind of dye as well, probably signifying rank.

"Greetings, I am Sage, Commodore and leader of the fleet overhead," I said, and the avians looked at one another, squawking a few times, before one came forward. It made noises at me, that I had to assume were a greeting in a similar vain, then flared its wings out, allowing me to notice that it had arms on its front, with the wings growing out of the side, giving it a rather odd appearance. I made a motion I hoped showed I didn't understand what it was saying, and I saw a very human-like frustration cross its eyes, before it made another noise, this one more like a chittering sound.

"Commodore, I understood that," said a voice in my ear, Joe's, and I heard a shuffling of feet and hands as she did something in her cabin, a muffled voice coming through as she discussed something with STAR.

"Alright, let me try something, STAR, move one of the androids forward, and relay this message," she said, and one of my honor guard took a step, and then made a chittering sound almost exactly like hers. The avian looked at it, then at me, and then made more chittering sounds. For several minutes, the two conversed, before, in a rather defeated looking gesture, the avian took off again, their companions joining them.

"Well Joe?" I asked, looking after the welcoming party.

"I'm afraid the news isn't good, Sage. I could only understand about a tenth of what they were saying. It was Old Chitter, the Holy Tongue, and unfortunately, I don't know enough to hold a conversation. All I could do is tell them we weren't here to fight, something I think they already realized, considering they let us land," she admitted, and I stroked my chin in thought for a moment.

"What do you mean by, Holy Tongue?" I asked at last, as I boarded my ship, making my way back to the bridge.

"Old Chitter is the speech of priests and holy people, from which modern Chit arose. Most of our modern words have some equivalents, but not enough it appears," she told me, and I considered that for a moment.

"You mean your language has changed enough to be unrecognizable?" I asked, and before she could respond, one of STAR's other androids turned from their task and made several grunting noises at me.

"Huh?" was all I could think of to respond, and the droid seemed to laugh at me.

"Sorry, I said, 'Pot, meet kettle', in English, the language GalStandard evolved from," he informed me, and once again I had to pause to think on that, before barking out a laugh.

"So it is. Alright, it's not your fault Joe. Where would we find someone who speaks Old Chitter?" I asked as I returned to my bridge, and made ready to take off.

"Hai Home would be the only place I can think of. An old historian or maybe we'll get lucky and find a priest who wants to travel the stars?" she offered, and I chuckled at that, lifting off from the planet, and quickly rising to the fleet. Their fuel tanks were topped off by the local primary, and my own were thanks to the atmosphere dive, so we could easily reach the system at the edge of this species' space. Of course, we'd need to stop there, unless we wanted to land on an Unfettered world…


	22. Hai History

Landing on the Unfettered world was easy. The port authority was just as bribable as any other, and my fleet was given a berth, within moments after the money was given. I even paid extra so I could talk to one of their leaders, with Monkey Joe complaining even as we landed about helping the enemy, even as I told her plainly, we needed the fuel, and I was curious. The Hai, even Joe herself, tended to be closed lipped about the Unfettered, and I wanted to know just what was going on.

"Hmm, the Commander of the Wormhole Patrol, her Quarg master, and their human lapdog. Quite the sight," said the old looking Hai who met us on the pad. His fur was missing tufts all over, and one of his eyes appeared to be blind, as it was mostly white, with a dull grey center. Still, he wore a uniform like someone important, and the insults he threw around were quite weighty. That told me he was in charge(or so he thought), and that's really all I wanted.

"And that would make you the one who took over for Voth after we made him into vapor," I told him smugly, and the Hai's fur ruffled up like he was trying to appear larger than he was.

"Voth was my clutch brother, of the same mother, human. He died bravely in defense of we, the True Hai!" the last was almost a declaration, but I ignored it as just more posturing, and moved on.

"Alright, well, your brother died at our hands, remember that, because I'm not going to be too teary eyed to start a little family reunion in whatever afterlife you believe in," I retorted, and he seemed to take that in a moment, before letting out a chittering laugh.

"A strong answer human. Well, you wanted to see the leader of the Hai on this world, and that is me. Did you come merely to trade barbs, or to do business of some sort?" he asked, and I nodded. Placing both fingers in my mouth, I whistled, and four androids soon came out of my ship, each pushing a pallet mover on which sat one of the jump drives we'd 'acquired' while in the alien space to the north.

"I noticed that you have jump drives, but obviously not a lot. Now, my own species doesn't have many either, but hauling these all the way to human space sounds like a pain, so I figured I'd give you first bid on them," I told him, and he licked at his teeth while turning from the goods, to me, and back again. While he was looking away, Joe leaned forward and whispered.

"You would give them the means to destroy yet more lives?" she asked in a very forceful tone despite the whispering.

"If worst comes to worst, we'll destroy their fleets on our way out," I said back, before facing the Hai in front of me.

"I will offer five million credits a drive, that's more than twice what human space would give you," he said simply.

"A generous offer, or at least, it would be if I hadn't paid almost five million just to land," I commented, and he seemed taken aback.

"Of course, for doing us this service, the fee you paid to dock will be returned, and you will be allowed future dockings for free, as well as free passage through our space," he said, and I got the impression that he wouldn't have offered those if I hadn't asked.

"A generous sum, and a good port of call. Still, why would Hai, so far north, have human credits in the first place? Our currency should not be good here, should it?" I asked, and the Hai made a motion with his hand that I could tell was supposed to be dismissive.

"Your kind ever ventures into places where you are told not to go, as such, we get visitors here frequently. We have gained much wealth, both in trade goods and simple credits," he told me.

"Ah, so you've been acquiring your drives from humans then?" I inquired, and this time he froze, as if considering what he'd just said.

"I am not at liberty to say. My offer stands, however," he said, and that seemed to be the end of his side of the conversation.

"Alright, you don't want to talk about that. How's about another topic then. I saw you fighting the avian species to the north. I'll trade you these, if you'll tell me what's going on there," I countered, and he considered this for a long moment, finally turning and pointing an accusing claw at me.

"You ask a hard question, as it involves much of our history. To put it bluntly, those in the north are scavengers. Those worlds once belonged to the Hai, and were stolen from us. Now we have the means to take them back, and we will not be denied our birthright," the last was said in the same tone as 'True Hai' from his earlier speech, but with a note of anger in it where the other had been triumphant.

"You're saying those avians kicked you off your worlds?" I asked, and that got a rather odd sounding grunt from him, followed by another round of chittering laughter.

"You know nothing of our history, do you human? Have you never asked this 'guard' of our people's glorious past?" he said, gesturing towards Joe with a hand.

"If you mean the lies you tell your children, Unfettered One, then no, I have not. Nor has he asked of our people's history, which is simply one of peace and isolation," she tells him, venom in her voice easy to hear, even through the clacking of her teeth in what I can only guess is either a death threat, or possibly a sign that she's cold.

"Well then, I shall tell him the true history in brief. Long ago, we Hai were as you humans are now. Young, impulsive, and most of all, expanding. Our ships were great, and the enemies we found amongst the heavens easily swept aside, and made either servant or dead, depending on how we were met," as he spoke, he began to gesture around, like a teacher giving a lecture, indicating he'd told this story many times before. Monkey Joe seemed ready to rip his throat out at some points, but I held up my arm to keep her back.

"Then we went too far. I do not know how, but something changed, and our borders were assaulted by the Drak, their ships numbering enough to blacken the skies of every world we held," with this, his arms went up, as if to indicate the sky above being so filled.

"Didn't you fight back?" I asked, and got another chittering laugh in answer.

"Foolishness of the young. My people were strong, but the Drak ships were by far our betters. Worse, they did not attack as we would. They fired no shots, they laid waste none of our cities. No, they attacked our minds instead, altering us, so that we would become more docile, more compliant with what they desired. Then they shuffled us here, into this out of the way corner of the galaxy, and sealed the lanes, so that we were trapped here," he explained, and I nodded, remembering the feeling of the Drak's voice in my head. Oddly, it felt like I should remember something else, but that thought vanished as the story continued.

"When all was said and done, we were made but pets of the Drak, left to exist in our cage. A millennium ago, however, our people were attacked. Peaceful we had been, and our attackers were ruthless, pushing forward as hard as they could. When they reached our core worlds, we found in us the courage to fight again, and in so doing, we unlocked that part of ourselves that spoke of our true history. When the threat had been beaten back, we tried to instill in our brothers and sisters the truth, but they rejected it, and banished us to these inhospitable worlds that had been left fallow," he said the last while staring daggers at Joe, but I ignored that.

"So you're trapped here, until the wormhole opened. But why? What do the Drak gain out of leaving you here?" I asked, and this seemed to bring the Hai before me up short.

"Honestly? I do not know. The Drak are powerful, but their motives are inscrutable. I would guess they are keeping us alive as something like a project. After all, we are not the first to have been so culled, nor are we the last. Perhaps they simply desire to find something in the younger races, and are keeping their failures around as lessons for their new projects," he said this was a sly looking grin at me, and I knew he was talking about humans.

"I think I've heard enough then. Take the drives, and transfer the credits to my accounts here. I have business elsewhere," I told him, and then walked away, back to my ship. Moments later, we were once more in space, our tanks full, and waiting for jump calculations to finish.

"Joe, you said your history is different than his. What does yours say?" I asked as we waited.

"His story has a ring of truth. The Hai have ever been isolated, but we've only been sailing the stars for a few thousand years longer than you humans, not a million as his people claim. We never had a great empire, only these few worlds. The invasion is true, however, a lane was unexpectedly opened with the Korath Automata's territory," she explained.

"As he said, we were peaceful then, and only a few of us fought them. Later, the Quarg aided us, using technology given to them by the Drak to collapse the route from our territory to the Korath Automata. The Unfettered are descended from those who fought at that time, but refused to simply let the war go when it was over," she said, but her voice seemed to waver, and I closed the channel out of respect for her, before opening another.

"Bandit, I know you were listening. You said before your Ring is here to watch the Hai Unfettered. Does that mean their story is true?" I asked, and her face in the display seemed to collapse into itself, as if she were attempting to hide from me. She rose up tall and proud after a moment though.

"I cannot say at the beginning, my personal experience only stretched back a hundred thousand years. Still, his story sounds plausible. The Ring has existed for many more millennia than the invasion a few hundred years ago," she said simply, and my own mind refused to parse the first part of that statement for a moment.

"You're more than a hundred thousand years old?" I asked at last, and the very humanlike face smiled at me.

"Heh, yes, quite young for a Quarg, I know," she said, and from that twinkle in her eye, I knew she understood the actual source of my question.

"You don't look a day over fifty to me, Bandit. Now, let's head to Hai Home. We need to find a priest or what not, and while there, I want to date one of their ports. If it's older than a few thousand years, we'd have an easy answer to this question," I said, as we finally jumped out, just missing the blue flash as another ship entered the system.


	23. The Second One Falls

We jumped back into Unfettered space, at my side a Hai of...interesting looks. She'd been called an ambassador by the Hai governor, but her demeanor, her way of moving spoke of a holy person. Sayari wore nothing, not uncommon for Hai given their fur, but her fur itself was the interesting thing. Each strand appeared tied in such a way to be obviously meaningful, but without drawing attention to it till you got closer. She was a true believer in whatever religion the Hai had.

"Captain, we are entering the Ehma Ti system now," STAR informed me as the blue fire faded from my vision.

"Alright, set course for Firelode, we'll dock there to refill our tanks then...STAR, what's going on?" I asked, looking towards the tactical screen to find the system was quiet. Not empty, as there were many more ships here than there should have been, but they all hung close to the planet. A quick count on the screen said the fleet there was more than twice as large as my own, ton for ton, though it had fewer capital ships, instead featuring a mixture of large and smaller craft, all at a dead stop.

"Unknown Commodore. The Unfettered vessels are powered, ready for combat, but they're not moving. I have...receiving a transmission," the android speaking waved a hand in the air, creating another floating window, and then passing it towards me. Inside, static played at first, as the message was decoded and translated, eventually showing an image, one of a bridge much like my own, with a chair floating in it. Except rather than a single person sitting in a large chair with an android, it was a human, surrounded by the crew such a vessel normally required.

"Claire...so, the old men find me even here. That is most distressing," I tell the woman in my view, wondering just what is going on here.

"Mr. Sage, Commodore I suppose is what you choose to be called now. I must admit, I expected Bernard to deal with you. His pirate allies seemed to believe that they would easily be able to destroy your fleet, and yet, he is dead, and those we paid so generously have faded into the background," I actually smiled at the memory of that bastard dying to my guns, and remembering his expression as the hull of his ship buckled.

"He overestimated himself, and fell to me. Will you do the same?" I asked, hoping to not have to kill her. I was not one of those who believed women deserved the benefit of the doubt, I knew Claire, like the rest, had done some awful, awful things, but right now, I was busy, and a holy person on my bridge tended to mean moral objections to even justified killings.

"Heh, you ask that, even seeing the fleet at my command? No, I do not underestimate you, Sage. I know every vessel in your fleet, I have studied your AI and how he operates. This battle has already been planned down to the last shot fired, and it ends with your death, and the death of those in your crew. Unless, of course, you agree to a compromise," she said the last while leaning back in her chair, looking very confident in her bargaining position. Considering the sims I could see STAR running out of the corner of my eye, the confidence was not without merit.

"You have my ear. Talk, and I promise to consider it," I said honestly.

"You will jump into the space currently claimed by the avian species, the Wanderers as I'm told they're called. Once there, you will land, and we will give you hyperdrives for your ships, while claiming all your jump drives. Once the exchange is made, the Unfettered shall leave you alone, and will not be venturing into the space for the remainder of your lifetime, say one hundred years," she offered, and that took me aback. All told, it wasn't a terrible deal, considering how much she outclassed me. Still, such a deal told me a lot of what she was doing.

"Something's going on in human space, something you don't want me to get involved in," I said simply, and Claire just smiled without answering. The bombings almost a year ago now, the ones that had started me on this path. That had to be part of it, and I'd probably already damaged their plans enough. My money wasn't what they wanted now, they wanted me gone.

"I make this offer in good faith. Should you refuse it, I can tell you right now, your ship, and those in your fleet, will be reduced to nothing but expanding vapor clouds," she told me, and I watched some of the Unfettered ships close up lines, like a predator preparing to pounce.

"And what does the leader of this world say? The one who promised me safe passage in Unfettered space? Is he a man to go back on his word?" I asked, hoping to buy time with the ploy. It didn't buy much, however, as the face of the old squirrel soon floated beside the image of Claire.

"I'm merely returning one dishonor with another. Those drives you 'sold' to us, belonged to ships we lost to the north. Either you claimed them from the Wanderers, or you captured them yourself. Whatever the case, our deal was not made in good faith," he told me, and I chuckled a little. I hadn't really trusted him to be held to his word, as it was rather easy to figure out where I'd gotten the drives, but still, he threw that back in my face rather well, and left me with very few options.

"Ah, Coth, it seems your clutch brother's death was not exaggerated," said an expected voice, Sayari, next to me. She startled me, but I tried not to let that show, as the image before me tilted, so that she had a good view of it as well, and far more importantly so Coth could see her.

"What? A Word Bearer? What are you doing on this human vessel?!" the last was shouted in incredulity, and I could almost see every ship in the enemy fleet that had been getting ready for battle, begin to hesitate.

"I Bear towards the north, where those who speak the Word are to be found, according to this human and Wing Commander Joe. I would speak with them on behalf of Hai Home and all its forces, and thus require a ship capable of reaching them. This human, who speaks not the Word, needs my voice, as I need his engines. An equitable arrangement, no?" she asked him, a chuckle from her lips, and I could see a mixture of hate, disgust, and what I had to say was almost worship in the eyes of the Hai on the other side of the screen.

"Coth, you will allow me to pass through this space. As a Bearer, I have the right to ask for this boon of you," she tells him sternly, and I can see him consider her words.

"No, no you will not. We have Sage, dead to rights, right now. If allowed, he will find another way out of Wanderer space. I demand you uphold our bargain," said Claire to the Hai, who looked to the side, obviously a monitor displaying her, before looking back at me, his face very thoroughly conflicted.

"Our human ally is correct, Bearer. I will instead allow you to dock with my vessel, and I shall Bear you to the north," suggests the old Hai, but Sayari just shakes her head, not even considering the offer.

"This human is the one who Bears my Word. This was agreed upon, and I shall not allow another to do so. Either you must allow us to pass, or you shall be barred from the Grove when it comes time," she declares, and that gets Coth to blanch, his fur taking on a silver hue as the flesh beneath goes pale.

"Bearer, I can't. To ask me to give up my allies…" his voice trails off in a defeated tone.

"Coth, arm your weapons now!" orders Claire, as she starts forward, her ship obviously moving into an attack position on my ship. I can see STAR already preparing our defenses, when suddenly the fleet behind Claire fires. Missiles, Hai Trackers, fly in a swarm, enough to cause the sun to dim as they pass between us and it. Their target, close as it is, can only shoot down a few with its defenses, as dozens of explosions bloom against the ship's shields.

"Coth! Wh-ZZAT-," Claire is cut off as the shields on her vessel fail, the Trackers now impacting her hull directly. Unlike Bernard, the explosions are slow, and so her screen goes to static, however, I can just picture her in a panic as flames burst from every direction, as her ship is reduced to a cloud of vapor. In my viewscreen, I see Coth look out, his vessel still stopped, not having fired on Claire's ship, and instead just staring at the spot where it was, before turning to face me.

"Bearer, I allow you to pass now, but never again. You have cost the Unfettered much this day, more than you can truly grasp. For that, I declare Anathema to you. This Road is Barred," he said, and then cut off. The fleet before us then descended back to the planet below, as if we were no longer worth it.

"I'm guessing your people expected something like this?" I asked as I watched the fuel gauge move upwards as we refueled from the local primary, letting the ramscoops work.

"It was anticipated, yes. I did not know one of your kind would be here. I am sorry for the loss to your people," she said, and I simply nod, rather than scoff. I knew enough about holy people to know that any death, even one of someone like Claire or Bernard, tended to be mourned.

"I'm guessing this is a one way trip for you, then? I mean, we might be able to make our way past them, with some luck, if you want," I offer, but Sayari just shakes her head.

"No, to pass this star again while breath lies within me would bar my spirit from the Grove. I knew this might be the case, and have made my arrangements. Hopefully, these Wanderers will not mind a missionary," she says with a very sad smile, before we jump out of system, leaving Hai space behind.


	24. Learning to Fly from the Birds

Landing on the Wanderer world again a week later, I found myself greeted by what I assumed were the same eight who'd met me before. Of course, that was impossible to tell, considering while I could see differences between Wanders, like color and plumage, I had not made a note to remember the details of the ones that had met me before. Luckily whoever they were, they spoke at length to Sayari, and after a long bit of that, one of them offered what looked like a disk to me.

"This holds their language, a basic course on it at any rate. Your AI should be able to use it to translate their words to your tongue," says the female Hai, and I nod, handing the thing to one of the droids beside us. It engulfs the thing in silver goo for a moment, before making some odd noises that sound like bird screeches, and then motions towards the Wanderer who'd handed me the disk.

"Hello, do you understand me?" I ask, and I can literally see the edges of the beak curl upwards in a smile.

"This one hears and knows your words, Human Sage. This one is proud to be known to you as Iktat Rek," says the Wanderer in a masculine sounding voice, before flaring out his wings, revealing his two small arms beneath them. You don't try to mimic the gesture, as you lack the wings, but instead bow your head. After that, you begin to trade basic ship information as the remainder of your fleet is given berths, refueling them using the mimetic polyalloy to allow interface with the oddly designed pumps of the Wanderers. After every ship is linked up, I, a droid, Bandit, Sayari, and Joe walked with Iktat to a small building built into the cliff, and sit in what I can only guess is some kind of office or meeting room.

"You have many questions on your tongues about our flights. Let them flow, and we shall stem the tide with knowledge," said the Wanderer as he took a perch on an odd hanging thing from the ceiling. My companions and I did likewise, save the droid that just stood.

"Alright, let's get the big one out of the way first. Why do you speak the Holy Tongue of Old Chitter? One would assume you learned it from the Unfettered, and yet, that language is not something taught outside the priesthood," asks Sayari before I can voice your own pressing questions.

"Ah, such words are known to our beaks by what remained. When the Eye gazed upon these world, it beheld the death that comes of stone and steel. We took from the remnants the words of those who passed, and then began to add life once more unto these spheres," responded Iktat, and it took me a moment to parse what he'd said, as the phrasing was odd, still, what he said made me think of the Coth's words when he spoke of this past.

"So these worlds, the ones in this area, really did once belong to the Hai?" I ask, and the avian nods.

"Indeed those called Hai once named these spheres as theirs, but that was in the long ago, an age long before the Eye opened upon this sight," he answered.

"So, the ruins had Old Chitter in them, and you studied them to learn the language. Did you learn anything else, like what drove the Hai away?" I pressed.

"Our wings taste familiar winds on the spheres. No war of gun or blade was done to harm these places. No, merely the touch of a tool, to be repaired by we who Tend to broken worlds. When our work is done, all shall be returned, as commanded by the Eye," he explained, and you took a moment to consider that. It fit with what the Unfettered said of their history, and you turn slightly to see Joe looking very dour at the statements. Reaching a hand out, I take her paw in my grip, and give a light squeeze, getting her to look up at me.

"Whatever the past, we make our own future, okay?" you tell her, trying your best to smile, and she returns it as best she can, before you both turn back to Iktat.

"What is this Eye you speak of?" I ask next, and at this, Iktat Rek seems less than enthused to answer, ruffling his plumage for a moment, then sighing.

"The Eye is the Eye. It opens upon the stars that are burdened by the scars of thought beings, their stone and steel stacked, and the lands torn asunder. When it opens, we pass through its gaze to come to those worlds that are so scarred, to heal them. Once the worlds are life filled once more, the Eye opens, and we ride its gaze to a new world in need of healing," he said, and I tap at my chin in thought. The Eye must be some kind of wormhole, but it sounds far too regular to be natural.

"Ah, so the Eye is a holy thing to you?" asks Sayari.

"The Eye is all to the Wanderers. It guides us to worlds that we might make them whole. In the healing, we ourselves are made more than we were," he says.

"Do you have people who speak of the Eye? Holy texts or the like?" she asks, and Iktat nods.

"Those Who Gaze. They are the carriers of Old Winds, giving us our history, and speaking of past worlds we have healed," he tells her, and the old squirrel woman smiles.

"Might I be taken to them? I am a holy woman of my people. Due to how we came here, I'm afraid I cannot leave this place, and would like to beg sanctuary if it is permissible," she explains, and Iktat seems to consider this for a moment, before walking over to a wall and pressing against it. The wall...slides as he does so, a bit of it spinning around to reveal some kind of communication device that he breathes into for a moment, seeming to make no noise. After a moment though, he turns back, his feathers ruffled a bit to appear even softer.

"Those Who Gaze freely welcome the Hai Sayari to their nest. When we are done here, an escort shall be found," he says, and I can almost hear the relief in the Hai woman thanking him for his people's generosity.

"So, going back to the Hai, I'm guessing they've been attacking you for twenty-two years, eight months, three weeks, and maybe a few days, correct?" I ask, and the gathered people seem taken aback by the specificity of my statement.

"That is when the winds of the Hai blew unto us. How do you know that, Human Sage?" he asks, and I motion towards the droid, whose hands shift into projectors, eventually displaying a list of ship names and timestamps in the air before him.

"We sojourned on an Unfettered world a few weeks ago, to scout around. While there, my AI companion, STAR, was able to infiltrate their system. We copied everything we could, for later perusal. During our passage through their space to bring Sayari here, we were accosted by them. During that, I learned they had dealings with a human woman of my acquaintance," as I spoke, the list focused in on the Shield Beetle Claire had been on.

"Cross referencing this vessel's arrivals and departures with the manifest lists puts this ship as the one trading the jump drives with the Unfettered, starting at that date," I told him, and waved a hand towards a ship receipt that spoke of a transaction. No details on payment for the goods, or the goods themselves. Just weight. Specifically the exact weight of ten jump drives.

"Hmm, distressing. The winds have never before spoken of your kind, Human Sage. Would this Human be willing to take offerings for ceasing their trade with the Unfettered?" asked Iktat, and I actually let out a barking laugh, before shaking my head.

"If she were alive, never. Claire and her associates get an idea in their head, and they never let it go. That won't be a problem, however," I tell him, and the avian face seems confused for a moment, then takes on a defeated expression.

"You slayed her and those who flew with her?" he asked, and I quickly shook my head.

"I've slain one, but there are still three others. Claire's death came at the hands of her allies. The Unfettered did not take kindly to her trying to attack their holy woman," as I spoke, I gestured to Sayari, who looked uncomfortable at the reminder that thanks to her, someone had passed onto the next life.

"Ah, so her death was merely a tragedy?" asked Iktat, but again I shook my head.

"I would not say that. I'm seeing now you aren't ones for violence, but I won't sugar coat it. I'm an independent captain, sometimes I do very un-nice things and take pleasure in this that might not be considered right. My family and Claire's group have had our differences, and seeing her reduced to her constituent particles makes my steps a whole lot lighter," I explain, and the wanderer and hai holy woman both seem to take a moment to reflect on me with sorrow. The quarg, non-religious hai, and android seem to be completely at ease, however.

"This news, while not of the warmest winds, sings with promise of the future. You say this Human Claire, was the one who gave the Unfettered their drives. Would one of her flight take up this task?" he asked me, and I have to think about that for a moment. Think about what I knew, or thought I'd known about the old man, before finally sighing.

"No, I don't think so. The old men like her always had their own business dealings, and I don't doubt they kept their own kingdoms quite independent of each other. Likely the eight seven drives they have now, are the only ones the Unfettered have left," I say, and the Wanderer seems to sigh himself, this time with relief.

"Much warmth then. I will pass this wind along," he said, turning back to the odd device on the wall. This time his breathing into it takes a while, and I fidget a bit in my seat, finding that the odd design is actually sending my butt to sleep, right up until the avian turns back to me.

"The Flight Leader of our defenses would like to digest your food for you," said Iktat as he finally takes his seat again.

"I assume that is a good thing," you say, and a very human smile tugs at the edges of the beak.

"It is indeed. You have solved a problem many years in the making, and for that, we thank you. While our warships will still all be needed for the defense of our worlds, we now know our enemies number, and may place them in such a way to prevent further intrusion. In gratitude, our yards are to be opened to your fleet," as he spoke, he rummaged around in his desk, and gently passed me a disk.

"This holds data regarding our technology. You may acquire anything on it, save the warships themselves," he tells me, and I pass the disk onto STAR's android.

"I assume this will have to be a tit-for-tat trade. You won't just be giving me these units, correct?" I ask, and Iktat shrugs his wings.

"It is true, we cannot part with equipment lightly. The winds of war have blown too hard on some of our charges with the Unfettered making their displeasure known. Still, I assume your people have some form of currency?" he asks, and I nod.

"Republic Credits. What use would those be to you, however?" I respond.

"Such has been our way, moving where the Eye gazes, that many patterns have emerged. You have come here, without war winds on your wings. What will follow after will be traders and diplomats. Having a currency they already use will make the skies of trade far simpler when such visits us," he explains, and you nod. A few more platitudes are traded, with our group parting as we leave the office. My friends and I to the yards, STAR saying he sees promise in some of the outfits, if not the ships, while Sayari bids us farewell, taking off towards a monastery.

It takes almost an hour of haggling over the price of a credit compared to the Wanderers 'Stones', a jewel like currency they use, before we purchase our goods. Reactors are loaded on board, stronger than the Hai's. Better yet, Sunbeams, powerful ray type weapons, stronger than anything in human space. Bigger too, given I can only equip two of the regulars and two dual turrets aboard each Beetle. And finally, the Wanderer Ramscoops, so much more efficient than the things I had from human space.

"Alright, everyone ready?" I ask, and get confirmations across the board. My fleet, now ready for war, launches moments later. On my galactic map, a course is set, one out the 'backdoor' of Wanderer space, and into some pirate systems in human space. I was going to be a big surprise for some of those guys, and better yet, a nice shake down for my fleet, before we got onto the bigger issues. Claire had confirmed, human space was about to be shaken up bad, if it hadn't already started, and I knew I needed to be there at the center of it if I could.


	25. A Fleet

"Alright, we're ready," I said, looking over my fleet status lights. Behind me, trailing in a long silver cloud was the fleet. And truly, it was a fleet, two and a half years had passed since the attacks that had given me notice of the Korath, almost three since finding the Hai, and now I had command of what was probably the largest force in the galaxy under a single command. Each ship was a capital, a Shield Beetle to be precise, with a single pilot and androids running off an iteration of STAR doing everything but the driving.

"All fleet assets stand ready, Admiral," said STAR's voice as we launched. Behind us was the Deep world of Valhalla. The skies ahead parted in our wake as we took to the Endless Sky once again. Every ship, more than three hundred now, was loaded with a mixture of tech from all over the galaxy. Jump drives for travel, atomic engines, including reverse thrusters, for real space movement, System Cores for shields, control, and hull repairs, while heat shunts made us nearly heatless.

"Weapons check," I ordered, and got a staccato of clicks over the comms as each vessel blasted out with the Sunbeams, six on each ship, a stunning stream of yellow lights passing into the heavens. With Wanderer reactors and ramscoops helping to power and fuel, my fleet was ready for almost anything the galaxy could throw at us. Heck, already five pirate worlds had fallen to us, their leaders sending tribute to me. Only a few hundred a day, really, but still, it kept them in line for the moment.

"All checks complete, we are combat ready, Admiral. Where should we head?" asked my AI companion, and I had to consider that for a moment, bringing up a holographic display of the galaxy in the air before me.

A year ago, when I'd left Wanderer space, I'd wanted to go straight to the source, to demand answers, but I found nothing on New Boston. Not a single shred of the Old Men were left anywhere in the system, and they didn't try to flee either, as my then fleet of one hundred and seven escorts had stayed in orbit to ensure that. With that avenue dried up, we'd begun making our way around the galaxy, searching for any sign of our foes. That had led to a few jobs, including traveling with They Might Be Riots, a band, and helping the world Rand with its terraforming troubles.

Oddly, no matter where I went, the story was the same. The Old Men, a group who had command of fleets, and had somehow had regular access to jump drives, were just gone. Worse, the situation in human space was hanging by a thread. War was threatened by both the Republic and the 'Free Worlds' yet neither side was willing to make the first move. It didn't take a genius, luckily for me, to figure out there was something up with that. Three years since the Free Worlds withdrew to an almost simultaneous terrorist attack on two of the most valuable assets in the Republic, and yet, nothing.

That last bit was disturbing. Images were on the news almost daily of the fleets of both sides just kind of staring at each other across space. Nothing beyond that though. Everyone seemed to be aware that something, anything, should have happened by now, and the silence was nearly deafening. Worst of all, the Syndicate, the massive corporation that produced many of the goods, seemed to be selling to both sides, at inflated rates, which kept all the goods times flowing for them.

Staring at that map, I knew somewhere there was an answer. The Old Men couldn't hide forever, and now I had a force to be reckoned with. Using my finger, I plotted a course through some of the less populated systems, where they wouldn't be able to house half the fleet I had. I figured it was the best way to shake something loose, and better yet, would provide some shake downs for my new captains and the command structure I had installed, with me at the top, Bandit and Joe below, and various Wing Commanders in charge otherwise. Who knew? Maybe my answer would be waiting in one of these ports?


	26. Rage, Smouldering

I wasn't lucky enough for our first destination to have the answer. Nor the second. By the fifth, my fleet captains, some of which hadn't gotten off their ships in a week, due to how many there were, were starting to grumble a little. As such, I took a detour towards the Paradise worlds near Earth. Figured I'd give them some time to stretch their legs, and maybe let those who'd found the flight a bit more than what they'd anticipated off. While my two alien cohorts, an android, and myself were sitting in a cafe near the port, however, we were approached by a man.

He didn't give his name, just identifying himself as an archaeologist, one whose special interest lay in the Deep. He offered me a good sum if I'd do some vandalism for him. Not how he described it, obviously, but still, the principle was the same. He believed that a certain church in the Deep, one of the oldest holy sites, actually predated human expansion into the region. That seemed absurd of course, but then, Elizabeth Sage, the first of my line, had supposedly left behind colonies that her single person exploration vessel simply wouldn't have allowed.

I agreed to do his dirty work, transporting him and a few of his associates to an out of the way world called Vinci. He was, of course, quite stunned by the size of my fleet, and the odd things about it. His associates, some of which included a xeno-sociologist, actually nearly demanded a tour. I wasn't exactly feeling charitable at the time, but STAR convinced me to allow it, one of his droid bodies taking them around to show the sights to, keeping them out of the more sensitive areas, and finally taking them to their cabins.

"You could stand to be a bit nicer. What has come over you lately?" he asked me privately as we waited for some of the ships to refuel at a star some time later. Facing his silver skinned form, I tried to look placid, but I couldn't out stare a robot, and finally just sighed, rubbing at my eyes and turning away.

"Honestly? I've been thinking alot about our current situation. When we started out here, it was just the two of us, expanding our horizons in a small ship, just two beings out for adventure. Now though, we're involved in stuff way bigger than us, and I don't like it," I admitted at last.

"You feel we should abandon this quest for the Old Men and go back to just exploring?" he asked, and after thinking about it for a moment, really considering it, I shook my head.

"No, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't feel right doing that either. We saved the Wanderers, doing what we did. If we hadn't intervened, the Unfettered probably would have continued to raid them, and we both saw those manifests. It may have taken Claire a decade to get them ten more after that first delivery, but she was speeding up. In a hundred years, like she offered, the Unfettered would have been able to equip a huge fleet with those drives. Probably conquer both the other Hai and the Wanderers at a stroke," I admitted, imagining that scene in my head, and not liking it at all as I saw ghosts of the avians and squirrels vaporized by Unfettered strikes.

"So then, you feel responsible for the galaxy at large? You think it is your responsibility to keep everyone safe, because you have the power to do so?" he presses farther, and I'm about to reject it out of hand, then I consider the statement for a moment. It seems to be, from the outside, what I'm thinking, but inside...no, it's not that at all.

"No, I think I want revenge. That's what's bothering me. I know we're doing good things, but we're doing it because I'm a terrible person inside," I said, and then waved my hand, pressing a few holo buttons. What displayed in the air before me was my most watched video clips, namely Bernard and Claire dying. Their faces, twisted in pain, the first blasting through Bernard's hull, while Claire just kind of stares into space. It still brings a smile to my lips, one that only gets a bit broader as I look at the three blank slots beside them, waiting for their own videos.

"Yes, I want to make them suffer, in the same way they made my family suffer for all those years. You don't watch your mother work dead end jobs, and literally have her savings stolen twice, without wanting to get back at the ones who did it," I said, dismissing the screens with a wave of my hand. STAR, for his part, was silent as I sat back down in my seat, staring out at the star beyond, watching thin trails of glowing light be scooped up by my fleet.

"I see," he said at last, and then he waved his silvery hand. Instantly, more screens popped up, scenes from our adventures. They showed our fleet engaging pirates, helping to defend merchants and civilian vessels against aggressors, before we warped away without ever asking for anything. It also showed us loading supplies, and then an image of myself, literally giving the stuff away at Martini back after the bombings.

"You've done much good over the years, and while I won't say you've always had the best of intentions, you are a good person at heart, no matter what you might think of yourself," was all he said, finally displaying an image of the Hendersons smiling at me, before he stood silent, his mind focused elsewhere. Left alone in the darkness of my bridge, I wondered at my own heart, until a beeping told me it was time to go, and my fleet set off once more for our destination.


	27. Having Faith

Valhalla, the Heart of the Deep, as it was sometimes called. It was the oldest settled world of the area, and the site of so many R&D facilities that you would be surprised to find the surface itself was mostly rural. Oh, sure, there were the Valkyries, the six largest cities on that sat on the planet's equator at almost equidistance from each other, but beyond the borders of those, you'd find nearly wild forests, small towns, and, in my case, a small church the traced its history back to the founding of the colony itself.

"Ah, so good to see a visitor to Our House. Have you come for the services?" asked one of the women at the door. Around me stood the church, smelling of age, with a few worshippers in the pews, kneeling on rugs towards a statue of their holy figure, or sitting on benches reading the Holy Writ. I made a noncommittal noise, and moved towards the second group. I proceeded then to pick up the book, and with a glance through the first and last pages, found myself just disgusted with it.

I was unsure to what religion the church was built, as I was never one for such things. Not that I believed in nothing, I had been raised as a Foundationer on New Boston after all, but that had some basis in the life force of a person at least. Its origins were newer, having come about during the Great Diaspora, as humankind expanded into the galaxy, and spoke of how we were to conquer the stars, with wits and will. This holy text spoke of gods and monsters, with the last page ending on words of love for all under the banner of their holy figure.

Placing the book back on the pew, I surreptitiously looked around me, finding not a soul was looking up from their reading or praying. Even the woman at the door was standing, head bowed to the statue with the church's symbol on it. Then I nearly fell to the floor as a loud clang echoed over the chamber. It took me a moment to realize it was the bell at the church's roof, and another to quickly draw out the sample jar from a pocket. With the sound covering me, I reached beneath my seat and pushed a large chunk of wood into the jar, before slipping it back into the pocket.

"May peace walk with you, always," said the woman as I left, and I nearly turned to yell something at her, as two faces, twisted in pain and consumed by fire and light played across my mind. I ignored that feeling, ignored those faces, as I walked back to the car that had brought me here, and within an hour was once more rejoining my fleet in the city where we'd docked. Within the afternoon, we were again in space, and I sighed heavily, taking out the sample and looking at it.

What I expected to see, I wasn't sure. It was from a church, and something inside my heart told me it had to be special. Churches were holy, after all, and that meant the materials to make it were holy as well, right? The wood refused to cooperate with that ideal, and instead appeared to be just a bit of varnished pulp, with one side looking far fresher than the other, as it had been only recently exposed to air. Shaking it brought no reaction from the sample, and I pocketed it again, as we flew onwards towards Vinci.

Landing there was easy, though most of my fleet ended up having to stay in space as the local port just didn't have enough docks for the full force. That got only a little grumbling from my captains, but nothing more than that. So Bandit, Joe, and myself made our way down, and then to the lab where our current employer had set himself up. Once there, he eagerly took the sample from me, handing it delicately to another lab assistant, and then shooing him away to do the actual work, while he motioned for the three of us to follow him.

"Excellent work, Admiral. We've been trying to get this sample for years now, but no one we've contacted has returned," he admitted, leading us out onto the balcony outside so we can stare off into the distance, where one could see ships moving off into the sky in a fairly steady stream.

"Are you saying that many others have been killed attempting this mission?" asks Joe as she stands there, her fur bristling a little around the edges.

"Oh, no, not that we know of anyway. We figure they just say yes to humor us, and then go off somewhere else. I'll admit, we don't have the most sterling reputation, our group. Our theories have gotten us laughed out of the major scientific community, and worse yet, we are, all of us, banned from traveling into the Deep," he explained, trying his best to smile at the squirrel woman, but failing rather miserably, as her stern face stared into him.

"Why are you banned?" I asked to break the tension, and the man's face seemed to soften as he turned to me, and then faced out towards the ships.

"Well, that's a story, Admiral, and not one I feel right telling. Suffice it to say, we made some enemies amongst the Deep's upper echelons with our theories, and they have used their every effort to bar our entrance to their area of space," he told you, and you thought over it. The Deep, for all it was heralded as being the most free and open area of space, with less corruption than the Parliament of Earth, and fewer controls over the average man than the megacorps of the Syndicate, still had an aristocracy of the old sort, that wielded powers both political and military.

"So you made some big wigs mad just questioning if their colonies are older than they claim? That seems unusual," I say, and the man nods.

"It is, but I have a theory about it. The Deep were the saviors of the human race at the end of the Alpha Wars, their technology being the sole reason we survived those terrible days. That legacy persists even now, and yet, if we're right, perhaps they are not the heroes they believe themselves to be," as he spoke, he looked at Bandit and Joe for a moment, and then shook his head.

"What I mean is, what if aliens, perhaps the Quarg, or perhaps someone else, aided them in their time of need. Gave them the technology that saved us all?" he suggested, and Bandit quickly shook her head.

"The Quarg would never share tech with a less advanced species. Too many examples in our history exist of just that sort of event causing wars which dwarf any in humanity's history," she said, defensively, and I nodded, remembering my time on the Ring, and my discussion with the Speaker. Even sharing information was frowned on, so sharing tech was right out. The archaeologist was about to respond to us, when the assistant, his breath coming in deep gulps, ran out onto the deck we were standing on, pointing an accusing finger and papers at me.

"You-huff-you didn't-gasp-switch-wheeze-the samples?" he demanded, in as stern a voice as he could manage, and I took a moment to realize he was asking if I had somehow faked the sample I'd given them. I shook my head, and the guy nearly collapsed as he shoved the papers in the archaeologist's face. The older man turned away from us, reading and muttering over the data, before finally folding them up with a steady hand, and then sighing.

"It's true. All these years, and this one test proves it," he said, and you could hear the joy in his voice as he did it, a single tear rolling down his cheek, before he turned back to face me.

"Sir, we now have proof that the church you were at predates human colonization outside our own solar system by five hundred years. That is reason enough to ask this. I want to go there, I want to see Valhalla. Take me there, and I will conduct a scan from orbit, one that would give me all the proof I need, and more. I can offer you money, and a prominent place in our papers, when this gets out," he offered, and I quickly agreed to it. This mission was sounding like something amazing, and besides, I did like thumbing my nose at authority.

A day later, the lab assistants, the scanning equipment, and the big man himself was loaded on my ship, and we rejoined the fleet in orbit. As we left, I got a feeling, just a niggling doubt, that this would not be an easy mission, and quickly ordered everyone to form ranks, and keep them tight, before we jumped out. Blue fire consumed our ships, and we were gone, leaping beyond the typical checkpoints, so none would know we were coming till we got there.


	28. The Third Rises

We arrived at Valhalla to almost no fanfare. A fleet large enough to conquer the Deep itself appearing in a flash of blue light, and yet, not a single transmission was incoming. That in and of itself was suspicious, and I quickly ordered everyone to start forming lines, dividing into their squadrons, and going on high alert. With them guarding our backs, I tried to raise flight control, but found it just as quiet as everything else.

"I'm getting some serious deja vu here," commented Joe, and I nodded, remembering the events at Shangri-La. Still, minutes passed, and no one came to do battle. At last, I ordered the archeologist and his group to the bridge, and began our descent.

"Hmm, this is odd," he said, as his sensors fanned out. Unable to leave the pilot's seat, I looked at him, and he obligingly moved his monitor so I could see it.

"There appears to be some form of quantum singularity on the planet below. Most peculiar," he said, and I thought about it, before shrugging.

"And why's that?" I asked at last, and he seemed dumbfounded for a moment, before shaking his head.

"Because such things are not found on human controlled worlds," he answers.

"Why? Are they illegal?" I continued, guiding our ship towards the source of the reading, hoping to get us a visual on the facility.

"No, not at all. After all, humans can't generate the things, so there's no reason to make them against the law," he said simply, and I was the one dumbfounded now, as I considered that.

"Wait, then how do we know what they are?" I countered.

"Because we have encountered them. It's why I'm surprised you don't know about them, after all, every ship in your fleet is equipped with one," he said, and I realized he was talking about the jump drive. Of course, before I could voice that, alarms started blaring over the ship's speakers. Moving my controls, I only just got us out of the way of a blast from the surface, some kind of electron based weapon, which then went screaming into space.

"Sage! We've got company up here!" came Bandit's voice, and I quickly pulled us back up into orbit, activating my shields the moment we crossed into space. The shimmering barrier around my wedged shaped vessel should have felt very secure, at least until I saw how many ships were waiting for us. Almost a thousand, all of varying sizes, but with green glowing barriers around them that looked very strong.

"Ah, finally, Mr. Sage," came another voice, not as familiar, but still recognizable as someone from my past.

"Hobbes, what an unpleasant surprise. Are Darian and Charles with you?" I asked as the face of the third member of the old men appeared in the air in front of me. Beside me, I could feel the team all gathering together, and strapping in. They may not have known who it was, but it was obvious a fight was coming.

"I'm afraid not. They're indisposed with other projects at the moment. That means I must deal with you, as the Deep is my area of interest," he said, and I watched as the image of his face was finally matched with a ship, the largest in the group obviously, a bacterian that appeared to have been refitted to be almost twice as large as normal, with a lot of gun ports besides.

"Heh, so I'm going to guess the Pirates were Bernards, and the Hai were Claire's. That leaves only a few options for the other two," I said, stalling as I rose into position with my fleet.

"Indeed. I suppose this means you killed Claire as well?" he asked, and I nodded.

"My hand didn't kill her, but she's dead because of me, yes," I admitted, and Hobbes seemed to sigh, running his fingers over the top of his bald head, and into the small tufts of hair that lined his skull.

"Distressing. We had hoped she was merely late reporting back. Worse, this does mean I'll have to permanently deal with you and your friends. I had hoped, personally, that you would see reason. We are fighting for the same goal, after all," he said, and this actually gave me a moment of pause.

"You mean you actually have a goal? I thought you were just being assholes," I told him, and Hobbes actually smiled at me.

"Oh no, we have an end goal with all this. To free humanity from the chains that bind it. I'm afraid though, death will be finding you now. As you can see, my fleet is equipped with the newest shield systems, said to be able to block heavy lasers completely, and with the new electron cannons, we'll slice through your entire armada without a problem," he told me, and it was my turn to smile.

"Thanks for telling me, but my turrets are a new model, sunbeams, and I'm sure they'll make quick work of you," I said, and this actually got Hobbes to look worried, just before lock on alerts filled my ears. He didn't say anything, however, instead his fleet began to advance, little spears of death launching from them as they came on, and I began to dodge as the two fleets met in open war.


	29. The Third Falls

I was forced out of the battle almost immediately, but not because we took damage. No, the reason I was out of the battle was because every single missile the fleet had was locked onto us, an almost contiguous cloud of them closing in from all sides. Needless to say, while I had a few antimissile defense lasers, they were not going to be able to take down that many, and my mind raced even as I gunned the engines hard.

"Sage!" came a shout I barely recognized as Bandit, before I spun myself on an axis, actually feeling the movement as the inertial dampeners were forced way outside their tolerances. Luckily, I was aimed right at the smallest group of missiles, tanking a dozen hits, while blowing a few more out of the heavens. Unluckily, the missiles fired were the smart kind, and they turned to move with me.

"Busy here!" I shouted back, trying to weave through the rest of the battle, as Bacterians, Spitfires, and dozens of other hulls met my force of Shield Beetles head on. They weren't even close to enough to fight off, thanks both to the pilots' skills, STARs coordination, and just plain being in worse ships.

Entire flotillas of the enemy were vaporized in the first engagement, and while they were at least able to damage a few of my ships, they proved less capable of outright destroying them. This was due to a variety of factors as well, but mostly had to do with the delicate ballet, as ships would fall back, and others would cover them, taking hits, and otherwise keeping each other flying, all directed by STAR's brains.

"The enemy fleet is more than half destroyed. Remaining forces are beginning to gather for another pass, however," said the AI helpfully, as I took us around a moon, and then into the ring around one of the system's gas giants. My shield took a beating from this action, the floor rocking with the impacts, but the missile swarm behind did start to thin out. The problem was, thinned or not, there were still a lot of them, and my engines were starting to overheat just staying a little ahead of them.

"Okay, time for desperate measures. Every ship not engaging, get in a line by the moon of Valhalla," I ordered, moving us towards that place ourselves, and eyeing the tactical display. Hobbes' ship was still alive, sadly, but he was damaged, with obvious clouds of smoke, atmosphere, and debris spilling from a few holes in his hull. Turning away from him, I was grateful to see my orders being quickly followed as the ships, about four dozen of them, got into formation, just as I passed in front of them.

Like I'd hoped, the missiles were locked onto me, a few coming in range of my ship's defense lasers. The line, however, allowed the other ships to do much the same, and soon blossoms of fire began to sprout up in the rear, as missile after missile, unable to diverge from its course of right after me, was destroyed by my fleet. It wasn't quite all of them, considering just how many of the things there were, but a few more passes…

"And now you die," said a voice over an open channel, and I turned forward to find Hobbes' Bacterian right in front of me. Turrets were already getting warm, and I could see the inside of his ship was sparking with explosions. Looking at him, I had to hand it to him. He was a smart one of his group. My shields were weakened, boosting my speed, if I transferred the power back, the missiles would get me, if I didn't, he'd blast me to the bottom of space himself. Thanks to the damage, he was a low priority target, with almost nothing in range to deal with him as I continued down the line of ships, all of which had stopped to form the defense line.

"Clever boy," I said in admiration, before dumping all my remaining fuel into my engines, listening as the hull shook as the engines began to burn out from that particular trick. Still, it made us a small bit faster, and threw off all the targeting calculations the Bacterian's computers had down on my vessel. That gave me a moment of breathing room, but if I stopped, the missiles would hit me. If I moved to the side, he'd reestablish a lock before I could get away, leaving me one option.

Focusing what shields I did have to structural reinforcement, I went straight ahead. Hobbes' ship was unable to move away in time, and so our great warships collided with enough force that, had we been in an atmosphere, we would have devastated entire continents. Luckily, we were in space, in ships with hulls of super strong metals, which bent and gave, but did not break, instead twisting around each other.

Then I flipped us. Firing my maneuvering jets, I switched our position relative to the missiles. Most, the moment of impact, saw us as the same ship, the profile changing as our metals collided. This caused some of the smarter ones to shut down, believing we were already destroyed, so they could be retrieved later. Some weren't that smart, however, and with a symphony of blasts, they hit home.

Hobbes' hull lasted through a few impacts, the missiles burrowing into what remained of his armor and blowing chunks out of it, but already damaged as he was, they soon hit the softer interior. Explosions of gas, light, and force ripped away from the vessel. When they reached the other side, where our ships had met, they had to tear through it again, and by that point, more of my own fleet was around, soon enough, the rain of missile ended, and everything in the system was quiet.

"I think we should get going," I said, as STAR began to repair our hull as best he could. This would be a task days in the doing, and as the enemy fleet, with the loss of their leader fled, I figured we should do likewise. By the time Vahalla Flight Control was starting to talk with us, my hull was stable enough for a jump, the archeologist and his assistants grateful to be alive, as we vanished in blue fire, leaving behind an enemy fleet, and a mystery they would have to solve another day.


	30. The Future and the Past

I offered the archeologist and his crew another attempt at Valhalla at some point, maybe after I got a few more ships just in case, but he turned me down. We were known to the Deep now, and even if Hobbes had somehow forced their hands in this, it wasn't likely they would quickly forgive the loss of so many ships. More than a bit paranoid, the archeologist even had us drop him off on Charon instead of the world we'd started on. There, I left him amid the fungal towers that dotted the surface of humanity's first colony, and then took to the stars once more.

Now, alone with my thoughts, I let the galactic map drift before me, as I thought of what to do next. Hobbes was gone, Claire was gone, and Bernard was gone. More than half of the Old Men had fallen now. That was a good thing, and yet, it meant the remaining two would be that much harder to find, much less kill. Heck, that fleet had survivors. Where Claire had seemingly vanished, Hobbes had died by my hand. They both would soon learn of it, and they would know I was searching for them.

So, that left me with a bit of a quandary. They'd laid traps for me four times now, each time a perfect cage that would have captured me, had I not had a stroke of luck. First in finding the Hai when they pursued me. Then in the upgrades to the NDR-114s that STAR now used when they'd tried to shut them down. Next with the Unfettered, where having a religious leader on my ship had allowed me to pass safely. And finally here, where that shield, according to STAR, would have meant doom for me, had I been using heavy lasers, rather than Wanderer sunbeams.

I'd surprised them at each encounter. Mostly due to luck that was not repeatable, either in how I flew, or the tech I had. I didn't know of other races to go to for better equipment, however. Well, save the Quarg, and I was almost certain Bandit and maybe even Joe would object if we turned pirate against them, no matter how annoyed with them they felt. That left a few single planet species, mostly those who hadn't expanded yet into space. None of them probably had tech different or powerful enough to make a difference.

So, the next time they laid a trap, it would likely work. Unless I were with a group. While my fleet was huge, for being under a single command, the fleets of the governments were by far larger, with the Free Worlds, Syndicate, and Republic each able to field fleets many orders of magnitude bigger than my own. I could, of course, call on the Hai, or possibly even the Wanderers for more ships, but I had to start worrying about logistics now, and I didn't see that problem going away even with STAR's aid.

So I should join with one of the three, but I knew now that Darien and Charles were out there, waiting, plotting. With Hobbes statement, I could guess Claire was leading their interests amongst the Unfettered, and considering they hadn't known she was dead, they probably didn't like to step on each others toes. That meant out of the three, two probably were being controlled in part or in whole by the pair. Oh, it might have been minor on the surface, but I'd seen Bernard pull together a fleet of pirates, let alone the forces Claire and Hobbes had had.

That left a roll of the dice. If I joined either of the two which had my enemies amongst their ranks, well, it would be a long walk out a short airlock. They'd find some way to make it personal, likely. Probably sending me off on a suicide mission, or impounding my ships in a way that meant I'd lose them, or access to my funds. That money was still my biggest trump card against them, but it was a drop in the bucket compared to what they must have by now, having stolen two generations worth of my family's fortunes.

So, it was a game with a loaded gun. Two rounds in a three chambered gun. Thirty three percent chance to make this work. Sighing, I almost asked STAR to make the choice for me, but then shook my head. Asking an AI to make a choice like that wasn't fair, and might even cause them to lock up, because there really wasn't a better option. No, this was my choice. With that thought, I reached out, hooking my finger on the floating hologram, and spun the image of the galaxy before me, letting it rotate freely, systems and nebulas blurring together

With a cry of frustration, I closed my eyes, and then stabbed my finger forward, stopping the map. I kept my eyes closed for a long time, letting the warmth of the hologram into my body, as I considered it, and then, something told me to pull my finger out, and then point it somewhere else, all without opening my eyes. When I finally worked up the courage to look, I found my finger pointed squarely at Bourne, in the Gamma Corvi system, and currently the capital of the Free Worlds.

"Hmm, fortune favors the bold," I quoted to myself, ignoring the typical follow up to the line, 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.' My course set, I got everyone to start plotting jump points, and with a rush of blue fire, we leapt from the Alpha Centauri system, towards a destiny I honestly couldn't see.

*Somewhere dreams are not just made, but met as well*

A man sits in a chair, age evident on his face, even if his body appears to be in its prime. Lines of worry, anger, and exhaustion cross his visage, giving him the look of a man so far beyond his years that one might feel pity for him. If of course, they don't know him. He sits at a desk, seemingly smooth, but with many small depressions on it that were buttons. In a moment, he could call up reports on holographic screens about all the doings and shakings in the galaxy, or just reports of projects he had going on.

Instead of these, he was staring out a window. Outside, a sun seemed just on the edge of setting, its yellow light turning purple as it descended into the ocean, giving it an otherworldly glow. Looking out at it, the man who was now called Charles rocked a drink in his hand from side to side, swirling the liquid around. His tongue barely tasted the port when he brought it to his lips, his face looking like something carved from stone as he waited, only reacting to the world again as a whoosh sound came from behind him.

He spun his chair around, already knowing what he would find. The man, now called Darien, strode in like he owned the place, his clothing very casual, for all the power he wielded. Dubbed the Invisible Man by those who knew of him at all, he could command fleets of ships at a statement, and yet, he appeared no different from the dock workers outside Charles' window. He carried himself with an air of power, however, as he strode across the room, and then fell into a chair in front of the desk.

"Hobbes is dead, and Claire is now confirmed so as well," he said simply, and Charles' hand closed tightly on his cup, the finely blown glass cracking as his grip tightened, enough to finally shatter it. He swore at this, mostly at the loss of fine drink. Leaning forward, he rubbed his hands to discard the shards of glass that had failed to pierce his skin before leaning forward.

"We'll need to accelerate the plan. Project A is almost completed here. What about your own?" he asked, and Darien gave him a shrug.

"Not as easy to gauge, but I'd say we're as ready as we can be. Projects B, D, and E are off to a start, but none of them will have viable results for some time, especially as our cash flow hasn't been as good lately," he commented, and Charles swore again, cursing this latest Sage. He'd have almost complemented the man's Luck, if he didn't know better. Still, it put things on a thread. One misstep now, and many years of work would just evaporate.

"Project O should be restarted as soon as possible," he said at last, and Darien raised an eyebrow.

"What about G? It's kind of proved itself, hasn't it?" he asked, and Charles nodded, looking out on the sea again for a moment, before finally turning back.

"No, we don't know enough about how it works. For now, we continue. If this works, we'll see about doing more with it, but only once we're in control," he said, and Darien seemed to accept this, rising from his seat and then leaving Charles behind. The man, once his associate had left, seemed to collapse into his chair. This was becoming most troublesome, but still. They'd put the numbers in, and the machine still gave them a high level of success. Surely one individual no matter how Lucky, could alter the destiny of a galaxy? That question rattled around inside his head for a long time, as he watched the waves crash against the shore.


	31. Taking Sides

We arrived at Bourne amid alarms, cries, and even a few weapon discharges from the local guard fleet. Luckily, the militia was just as well equipped as what you would find in Republic space, namely it consisted of a few Sparrows and one Star Barge. The shots barely plinked against the shields of one of my ships, and a quick transmission got them and the ground defenses to back off, as I claimed to be friendly. I was then provided with a provisional landing permit, and given a dock in one of the larger cities, my fleet as well.

We descended into the clouds, each taking a berth, and then I allowed my pilots freedom for the day, as I sought out any authority figure. I assumed that anyone in charge would be thrilled to have a warfleet like mine helping out in their efforts to claim freedom. Of course, we all know what happens when you assume. As such, my search for authority routinely came up against the walls of bureaucracy, with little men and women sending me to this office or that, until finally I told one of them I would be assaulting the planet if I didn't get answers.

Said answers were rather simple. Bourne was the 'capital' of the Free Worlds. It would be where their Senate met to decide great matters of state. But said Senate hadn't even been elected yet. In fact, there weren't even elections scheduled as such on most worlds, meaning Bourne was essentially just the fall back position for the Free Worlds. It was stockpiling everything, and was building itself to great heights of industry, but for the moment, not a single person of authority was on planet, and most of their current leaders hadn't even set foot on it.

It made sense, in a way. The Free Worlds had announced their secession from the Republic, and then the terrorist attacks had put them on a war footing with that same government. They'd quickly had people, an Interim Council, take charge, made of leaders of various industries and groups. They were supposed to be a temporary measure. Only needed until the war with the Republic was defused, and they could go back to being the Free Worlds, where every man, woman, and sophent had a vote.

The problem was it was more than three years later, and the war just wasn't coming. Or rather, it was boiling slowly. So Bourne was left a capital waiting for a government, while the actual leaders were spread throughout the Free Worlds and beyond. Worse, they were busy, and wouldn't just be open to meeting with some slub off the streets, no matter how large a fleet I had. Sighing in frustration, I made it clear I needed to talk to them, and the bureaucrat, in a rather surprising turn, proved helpful.

While she couldn't help me get in touch with anyone in charge, she could provide a mission contact. If I supported the Free Worlds through my actions, it was almost guaranteed that one of the Councilors would approach me instead, without any possible complications that came from asking to be taken to the leader of a government while flying a huge fleet. That done, I allowed my people to rest up for the rest of the day, enjoying Bourne's sights, before launching off to find the first in what I hoped to be a small string of small jobs.

It wasn't exciting stuff, I suppose, but it was quick at least. The first jobs I was asked to attend to were scouting missions. The contact in question had not idea the size or capabilities of my fleet, and doubted me when I returned in a few days with not only the systems she'd wanted, but basically the entire Dust Belt and Pirate worlds of the South. She accepted it of course, after a bit of cajoling. She then gave me Credits to pay me, and agreed she would get in contact with her leadership.

"Put your hands in the air," said a quiet voice behind me as I left the woman's office. I paused almost in mid stride as I felt a very hefty metal weight press against my back, and considered briefly spinning around and doing a trick I'd seen in a movie once to my assailant. I resisted that rather foolish urge, however, and instead, complied.

"Good, now turn around, very slowly," instructed the voice, and I did so, gently taking it one step at a time, my eyes going to the weapon, a high end energy blaster, and then to the one who held it. A woman of middling years, only a decade or so older than myself. She wore the uniform of a Free Worlds officer, but with a few extra pins for rank than I'd seen before. Obviously, this was a woman of high standing.

"Smart, Captain. Many men in your position would have tried to overpower me even with my gun," she said with a smile, and I smiled back, before pointing with a finger behind her. When she stepped aside so she could keep her gun on me, she turned just enough to find Bandit, Monkey Joe, and about half a dozen of my pilots, all at a cafe across the road, all having drawn their weapons, which looked far more lethal than the small blaster she held.

"Hmm, a man who covers his bases. I like that," she said at last, holstering her own weapon, which, after a handsign from me, got my people to do likewise, their arsenal seeming to vanish as they returned to their meals, though both Joe and Bandit kept their eyes on us as we spoke.

We talked in the street, though that only seemed to be because the woman, who refused to tell me her name, was nervous about taking me out of sight of the group, just in case they decided to launch a rescue mission. It eventually came out that she needed a civilian for a quick courier mission. Nothing illegal, according to her, just some light smuggling of goods that were becoming harder to obtain with the cold war going on between the Free Worlds and the Republic. She gave me a planet, a time to be there, and a name to look for, before wishing me luck.

"Alright guys, back to the ships!" I shouted across the street at the others, and soon a small mob assembled, some from the cafe, but many others from various buildings, which startled the woman to no end as we made our way towards the port. Apparently she hadn't noticed all of my people, and that made me smile to myself as we trooped back towards the spaceport. There, we divided up to our ships.

"Hmm, I have a message saved for you, Admiral," said STAR as I settled into my chair, and was greeted by another woman's face on my screens. She looked older than the one who'd given me my current mission, despite her uniform having fewer chevrons on it. She asked me, in a rather polite tone no less, to help take care of some pirates, the Rat Pack, that had been causing trouble in the local systems. Adding that to my todo list, we launched, screaming once more towards the heavens.


	32. Anger Management

I decided to deal with the Rat Pack first. They were only a local pirate gang, so I figured they'd be easy fodder for my guns, despite supposedly being a threat to Free World's shipping lanes. As it turned out, they were a collection of half a dozen small craft, but I quickly learned what every pilot in the Free Worlds had learned about them. They were tricky, and prone to running away, scattering like roaches at the turning on of a light, each ship seemingly taking a random vector away.

Of course, the instant my ships pursued, they were lured into minefields, cloaked explosives latching onto hulls and detonating. Never enough to do major damage, after all, we were flying warships, but if we'd been in merchant vessels, they would have disabled, if not outright destroyed us. Worse, they bolted the moment their little trap hadn't worked, going south from the system we found them in.

What followed was a cat and mouse game as the gang had friends in just about every system, either refueling them, or worse, hitting us with searches and the like to delay us so they could jump out ahead of my forces. As this continued, I'm not sorry to say, I became rather miffed, and even ordered a militia craft out of my way, or I'd blow them out of space. When they didn't comply, telling me I would be arrested, I made good my threat, leaving them a cloud of debris as I jumped to the next system in line.

We finally cornered them in the Men system, one of the 'Pirate' worlds there giving them cover with ground based defenses, including a rather large mass driver that shot huge loads at us from the ground. One of those shots actually manage to catch my ship, as I was a bit too focused on vaporizing the Rat Pack down to the last atom, and was thus surprised when everything spun as the ship was struck by several tons of metal flying at a significant portion of C, blasting away my defenses, and then ripping a huge hole in the hull.

Luckily, STAR was a quick mind, and sealed the cockpit and various other sections of the ship. This meant that I didn't die in hard vacuum, and instead limped away. The fleet followed close behind, forming a shield wall between me and the planet, while, also luckily, ignoring my orders to glass the surface. When I'd been calmed down, by an AI that refused to let me out of my seat as it held me down via gravity manipulation as well as too doses of a fairly powerful sedative, I was finally willing to talk.

"Sage, I think you need a time out," said Monkey Joe over the screen, and I almost yelled at her again, before catching myself, and breathing deeply for a moment.

"I don't think that's your order to give, Joe. I'm the Admiral, I give the commands," I said in what I thought was a clam voice.

"True, but I'm your friend, and besides, the Rat Pack is vapor. We'll report this in to the authorities, collect the bounty, and then go. Only once your ship is space worthy again, however," she told me, and I really, really wanted to punch her, despite the drugs, as I thought about how embarrassing this whole situation was. The Rat Pack was small time, should have been an easy kill. To have led me on a chase like this was just frustrating. I said as much, with a lot more swearing involved.

"All the more reason to celebrate their destruction. Why don't we head to the station in this system for a break? Just the three of us?" she offered, and Bandit appeared on a floating screen beside her, to give her go ahead to the plan, while STAR was already plotting a course to Smuggler's Den. Despite everything, I knew when I was beaten, and consented, ordering the rest of the fleet to take up guard positions as we flew to the station, docked, and I had myself bodily thrown out of my own ship by STAR's androids, even as they began to work on repairs.

"Feeling calmer?" asked Monkey as she walked up, her tail twitching a little behind her to show her concern. I took another deep breath, but this time, rather than shout it out, I let it loose in one big sigh, trying to let it carry my frustration with it. Bandit then galloped up, bounding over the floor to meet with us, and informing us there was a bar on the station where we could rest for a while. Leading the way, the two women took me to it, and within an hour, I had several drinks almost literally poured down my throat.

"Are you a starship captain?" asked an unfamiliar voice through the haze of drinks, and I sobered up fairly quickly at the sound of it, my hand going to my belt, only to find my blaster had been confiscated at some point by someone. The girls weren't unarmed, however, and each drew their weapons, a wicked looked claw thing that sparked for Joe, and a pistol with six barrels for Bandit, as we all turned to face the speaker.

The person in question was a kid...well, at least under twenty five, so I felt justified in saying that. He wasn't much under though. Probably late teens, early twenties. Despite this, his body was far more scarred than my own, and one could see a large cut that probably went up his arm to his shoulder, the sort of cut one sometimes got manning a ship's engine room that hadn't been maintained in a while. The other thing about him was he had a series of tattoos on his face, making him look less than safe to talk with.

Behind him was a woman, stooped over in an odd way, at least until one noticed the bundle in her arms, she was cradling close to her chest. She wasn't as marked as the man, her skin still having a few small cuts and some obvious bruises on it, but otherwise she lacked the tattoos. It didn't take much to realize they were pirates, or at least, crew for the ships, and at first I was worried what she was carrying was some kind of weapon, then I noticed a very tiny hand come out of it, and heard the low cooing sound that was unmistakable.

"I am. How did you know? Smugglers Den is fairly large," I asked, and the man seemed to recognize he'd better answer the question. The statement wasn't a lie either. This station had been a refinery back in the day, able to comfortably allow for workers and family to live here for years at a time, so it was designed for a comfortable population of around ten thousand. Given the people living here now weren't exactly concerned with luxuries like living space, there were probably at least five to ten times that many.

"I, well, you're here, and you've got aliens with you, outside brown sector. That means you're not from around here," he said, motioning to the girls, and I look at them, motioning with my hand for them to sit down, before doing the same towards the couple, letting them take the seats across from us.

"So, aliens are segregated into a different section of the station?" I asked, and the man shook his head quickly.

"No, no, it's just, they're not humans, so when they come here, they're...well, they're rich. Most of them are captains too, with really good ships. They hire well, but some of them take people away, and you never here from them again," he explained, and I nodded at that. It made some sense, after all. To get to human space, they'd need a ship. To own a ship, you tended to need capital, hence you were wealthy. Depending on the species, they could get a good crew here. That, or some good spare parts on two legs for eating or building.

"Okay, so, I'm a ship captain, what do you want?" I asked, a bit of the anger from the Rat Pack coming back, before I downed another shot to quell the fire. The two appeared to notice my agitation, looking at each other, but then back at me, a spark of hope in their eyes I kind of remembered in my own back in the day.

"We want out. This place, it's...it's not the sort of place to raise a family. We want to go somewhere safe, for our little girl. We have money, we can pay you," he said, even holding out a chit that appeared to be worth a few hundred, sliding it across the table to me. I looked down at it, and with a contemptuous flick, I send it back towards him.

"And why would two pirates want help getting off the station? Why not ride along with one of the captains?" I asked, and the man's spark of hope turned to an angry smoulder as I watched, a fact that got my interest as I'd been feeling that same sort of anger all the time.

"You think we want to work with them? We're not pirates," he said, in a harsh, almost hissing whisper, and I leaned forward, pointing a finger to his forehead.

"The ink says otherwise," I simply responded, and this got the man to smack my hand, causing the girls to go for their weapons, but I quickly put a hand on their shoulders, getting them to calm down a little, before motioning for the man to speak.

"We don't have a choice, none of us do. If you're born on a Pirate world, you're a pirate. No one wants you, no one helps you, and thanks to the Clans, we can't leave. They grab anyone who tries. Most of the crews on ships that fly their flag would drop out in a heartbeat, but it would probably be their last to try," he said, waving his hand around, drawing my eye to the other bar patrons. They did look like a rather sorry lot. Not the cheerful, hedonistic sort one would expect of a well paid pirate crew, but more the sombre kind, ones born slave, who expect to die slave.

"And you think I'm not going to do this to you, why?" I ask, and the man just stares at me.

"Because you're not from here. Everyone knows a ship captain came in with some weird alien ship, and they fought the Rat Pack and won. That says you're not a pirate, cause they'd never be stupid enough to challenge one of the Clans like that. I'm hoping that means you'd be up for passengers or crew to take away from one of these hellholes," he stated simply, and I had to grant that kid, he was brave for gambling the way he was on me. Foolish to be sure, as I could just be some new clan leader looking to make his name, but still, brave.

"Alright, we'll take you, but where would you go? Those tattoos will probably keep you from getting a job on most worlds," I said, and this response made the two freeze, statue-like for several moments, before I saw a sparkle of tears in the woman's eyes. I hadn't expected that, or the little squeeze the kid...the man gave her hand. I found I liked them.

"Arabia, in the Ascella system. I have a 'cousin' who got away a few months back. He's got a good job there, or so he said. I'm hoping he'll be able to give me an in," he said, and I nodded, rising from my seat. A few local toughs came up towards us, one of them intent on the man and woman, but Bandit got in their way. It was surprising how intimidating a Quarg could be with their almost wire thin limbs, even if they were really tall. Mind, it was helped by her weapon's barrels extending out, and all whining as light came from each. After that, we had no trouble returning to the bay, and I directed the ladies to return to their ships, while waving for the pair to follow me.

"So, what are your names?" I asked as we ascended the ramp. The two seemed breathless as they got a look at the androids coming on board, but shook out of their stupor, the woman answering.

"I'm Maria, this is Joe, Captain…?" she said the last as a question, pointing her hand at me, and I barked a laugh.

"Admiral Sage, leader of a three hundred ship fleet. STAR will direct you to your quarters. Ask him and he'll get you some food, for you and the baby. We'll be in Arabia in a few days, after I take care of some personal business," I told them, proceeding to the bridge, where I found the damage already repaired after only...twenty hours. I was in that bar a while apparently. Sighing, and rubbing my head as I knew I'd have a hangover tomorrow, I started us away, plotting a course back to Free Worlds space to collect my bounty.


	33. Job Hunting

We stopped by Longjump in the Sabik system to collect the money, and hopefully to get some info. Sadly, that hope was dashed by the woman who'd posted the bounty being rather pushy. She shoved a chit into my hand, told me the Free Worlds appreciated my help, and then rather curtly asked me to leave. It was only as I was about to say something that I remembered vaporizing a militia vessel. Sure, it was one that must have taken bribes, everyone knew that happened, but still, it made the militia look less than good when an independent ship captain can take them apart like that.

So I stalked back onto my ship, to find the pair of young lovers in the mess, the sight of their exhaustion making me smile. Apparently their daughter wasn't liking the ship's noises, and while I was fairly gentle as pilots went, the lack of station noise, and the vibration of the deck plates kept her up. Still, they looked into each others eyes, and seemed to gain strength from it, before an android set another plate in front of them, and they attacked the meal like starving wolves, though ones with the manners to thank the cook.

As it had turned out, neither had ever had real food. They'd been born on that station of theirs, never a moment to themselves, and always bouncing around with whatever pirate needed a crew just to make enough to live. Joe was a tough, just muscle, and while I thought he looked scrawny, he was good enough at what he did to make that his career, so I figured it was enough. Maria meanwhile was a woman on a station where law was a thing that happened to other people. It told you all you needed to know about how her life had probably gone.

Both had lived there their entire lives, save the times where they were press ganged into pirate crews. As it turned out, while the crew got a cut of the spoils, said cuts tended to be rather small, and they were always dropped off back on Smuggler's Den. With that in mind, neither had ever eaten anything but the nutrient paste the station made automatically, thus they found the stores on my ship, of real fruits, meats, and other such things, more of a feast than they had ever imagined.

Launching off, we headed for Arabia. I figured dropping them off would be quicker than the transport job for the Free Worlds. We did, of course, have to fight off a few more pirates, but mindful of what I'd learned, we left them disabled, rather than destroyed, with local enforcers boarding them as we jumped between systems. A few days later, we found ourselves in orbit of the world, our computers syncing with the databases below, allowing Joe to search through the employee lists for his 'cousin'.

That was how we found the bad news, as Joe went through all the other man's alias, before finally getting through to someone in charge. It turned out that his friend was dead. Refineries even in this day and age weren't exactly safe places, and the one he'd been working in had caught fire, burning him and at least a dozen others alive. The foreman offered us his condolences, while the two beside me looked like they'd been shot, collapsing in on themselves as they hugged each other.

"Are there any other positions open?" I asked, and the foreman shrugged.

"Sorry to say, but with that refinery out, there just isn't much in the way of jobs down here. We'll get it back up in a few months, say five or six, but until then...:" he let this trail off and I nodded, eventually contacting others, and finding out just how connected the Arabian economy was. A single plant down had flooded their job market with new labor, and there just weren't any openings anywhere, not even service industry. I did get a few tips on how Milrace, a Syndicate controlled world, was just starting to boom, and even that several of their own people had already headed in that direction.

"Thank you for your time," I told the last person, closing the screen, and then turning in my chair to the pair. They'd since gotten over their grief at losing their friend, and now looked totally defeated, as Joe got out of his chair.

"I...I'm grateful you took us this far. Here, it's the amount I said I'd pay. If you'll let us land, I'll...I'll find something down there, we'll make due," he said, holding out a chit card. Absently, I reached out, but rather than taking it, I slapped another card down on top of it, the two-hundred-thousand one I'd gotten in bounty for the Rat Pack. When he say it, and more importantly the amount, Joe's brain seemed to shut down, giving me time to bring up the galactic map.

"STAR, set course for Milrace. We'll drop our young couple off there on our way to Glory for our other mission," I ordered.

"But, but, but," said Maria, as she cradled that lovely little girl in her arms, staring at the card, then back at me, then at the card again.

"Before you say anything, you're only a jump out of my way, so it's not that big a deal. Besides, you saw my fleet, I'm not hard up for credits right now. But I do remember what that's like. I was born into better circumstances than you, I'll admit, but still, I was in a position of getting beaten down by people over me too. Now get yourself strapped in, we'll be leaving shortly," I told them, watching as he fuel gauge climbed, waiting for it to hit full.

"Thank you," said Maria's voice, and before I could turn to tell her not to, she kissed me on the cheek, then rose and fell into Joe's arms. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the twinkle of tears, joyful ones, as they just held each other close.


	34. Search and Tourism

We reached Millrace without any confrontations. Landing proved easy, and we quickly searched the local network for job postings, plugging in Joe and Maria's skills. These almost immediately brought up some very nice offers from a few local factories and the like. Soon enough, they were at the ramp leading off the ship, their baby, Jesse as I had learned, in her father's arms as he walked down to the new world. Before she left though, Maria turned to me.

"I don't know how to thank you, Admiral. We'll do our best to make our life here, and try to earn the credits to pay you back, somehow," she assured me, and then sped off after her lover and child, leaving me behind with a grin as I closed the ship up and took back off. This side trip done, and my own emotional state just a bit more stable than it had been, I set course for Glory in the Wazn system, my fleet and I vanishing in a blue flash.

A few jumps later we were at Glory. The port authority, sounding almost as corrupt as the pirates, demanded an exorbitant landing fee for my fleet, and so I ordered them to the local primary instead. The ramscoops would fill their tanks, and I could land alone, so there was no need to bribe one of the port officials. That done, STAR and I gently guided our hulk down through the atmosphere, and then just as gently into the berth we'd been assigned. Once landed, I powered down, and sent the callsign I'd been given into the local network, before sitting down to wait. An hour later, I got an odd answer.

"Sage, there is a couple requesting permission to board," said STAR as I was playing a game on a floating screen. Saving my progress to defeating the Dragon Lord, I turned to another screen to find the couple, a middle aged pair that had a look that just screamed tourist, including luggage and hawaiian print t-shirts.

"Hmm, interesting," I said, rising from my seat, grabbing a pistol just in case, and then making my way down to the ramp. It hissed open a few minutes later, and I stood in front of the pair.

"Might I help you?" I asked, and the male of the group nodded, offering his hand to shake, which I took, finding a very surprising grip behind what looked like old hands.

"You just might, my good man. My wife and I, we're kind of looking for some excitement in our lives. You know how it is, you get older, you want to explore a bit, maybe see some new worlds, right?" he asked, and I nodded, remembering staring up at the stars on New Boston some nights.

"Yeah, I was sure you would. See, we want to go somewhere where there's a bit more roughness to be found. Not a factory world like the Dust Belt planets, but a real wilderness sort, with maybe a smattering of civilization on it, you know what I'm saying?" he said the last while patting me on the back.

"I can understand. Are there no transports off world? I can recommend a few good spots," I told him, but the man shook his head.

"No one's going from here to where we need to get. My wife's got a bit of family ou on Skymoot, but this whole situation has got most free transport captains knickers in a twist taking tourists from the Republic to the Free Worlds," he explained, and I nodded again, seeing how that would be the case.

"And you think I might be able to transport you?" I asked, and the man gave me a bright smile.

"Exactly," he responded.

"And what makes you think I go to the Free Worlds?" I followed, and the man's smile only got brighter, while gesturing to my Shield Beetle.

"Why, this hull of course. No way a Republic merchant would be flying some non-standard hull, and this thing is flying merchant colors, so that means you're either from the Free Worlds, or someplace where it don't make no nevermind," he said, his accent slipping into something I'd heard before. With a start, I realized what was going on, and I offered the two a set of quarters onboard my ship, telling them we would be leaving that night once some goods had been loaded.

We were off less than a half hour later, my fleet and I falling into formation just as a Navy patrol came into the system, hailing us for reasons I wasn't even going to try and grasp. We left them behind, skipping our way across the stars until we arrived in the Mulifan system. While there was a small port on New Kansas, it wasn't nearly large enough for my fleet, and I decided quickly to just refill our tanks with the local primary instead, opening the ramscoops up and sucking away stellar material.

It was an hour later that alarms began blaring, and my fleet took guard positions around me, huge wings of ships sliding into formation against...well, a positively ridiculous number of opponents. The Navy's Fifth Fleet, as STAR helpfully identified, had entered the system. Made up of almost ten thousand vessels, this represented one of the hammers that the Republic could use to crush its enemies and enforce its will, and right now, it was baring down on me, a channel opening with what I assumed was the flagship as they came closer.

"Mr. Sage, I must admit, you have been a hard man to track down, despite the large force you employ," said an old woman, with silver gray hair, and a uniform that looked like she'd been born into it, moving easily, despite the clink of metals that dotted the front.

"Considering my position, the correct honorific would be Admiral, ma'am. As for the second part, I do make good use of the jump drives," I bantered back, and the woman appeared to genuinely to consider my words, before moving on.

"Such titles are conferred to those who are actually fighters, not independent ship captains. Still, 'Captain' Sage, it has come to my attention that you stopped on Glory recently. Afterwards, many tonnes of material that were needed for our peace efforts were taken away. While I'm almost certain you have nothing to do with it, I'm sure you'll understand our need to search your vessel, before it returns to Free World space," she said the last, in a tone that wasn't exactly threatening, until one noticed the beeps in the background, as turrets on her ship took aim, and I got several lock on alerts from STAR in a window behind her.

"Hmm, I see. Well then, Ma'am, I suppose my options are limited. I could run, fight, or allow you to board me, illegally I might add. Which of those three options do you think sounds best?" I asked, and heard my own sunbeams chimed as I locked onto her, every ship in my fleet doing the same.

"Yes, well, fighting, is not quite a good option, as I'm sure you can see. We are not some pirate gang, to run when you blow away our leader. And running would lose everyone flying with you their license, making them outlaws to the Republic. I'm sure you'll agree those are not viable futures for you. However, should you submit to a search of your flagship only, I will assure you, no harm will come to you, or your fleet," she said, and I almost dared her to try, before finally relenting.

Ten minutes later I had the big lady herself on board my ship, as a sign of faith, though she did bring a squad of marines with her, as well as inspectors that began to go over my ship with a fine tooth comb. They eventually found the tourists, apologizing as they went through their luggage as well, while the rest scanned my cargo, kicking deck plates, and even shooting static into the walls to search for hidden areas.

"You know, the alien tech you've acquired for yourself could be a big help to the Navy, if you'd consent to selling a few pieces of it to us," she offered as her men continued to tramp over my home, trying to make conversation.

"I don't have much love for the Republic myself. They allowed my family to be kept down for two generations on New Boston, and so far, the best the Navy's done for me has been interfering in my personal business," I told her bluntly, trying to think of even one time when the Navy ships had been around when I might have needed them, and drawing a blank.

"I'll admit, we can't be everywhere, we're stretched pretty thin after all, but a few extra ships like these, and something like the jump drives could make a huge difference," she responded.

"They do make one. Without them, I would have died more than once on my adventures across space. Three of the five people that held my family hostage for so long are currently nothing but dust, and until the other two join them, I'm going to be keeping my equipment," I countered, and she looked about to respond when one of her aides came up to us.

"Ma'am, we're done here. We've found nothing actionable on board," he said, and I felt my anger rise for a moment, realizing they'd been looking for anything they could use against me, not any specific thing. Still, I was as polite as possible telling the Navy officer to leave my ship, and we jumped out before she could do anything else.


	35. Mr and Mrs Anderson

"Mr. Sage, it's good to see you again," said the woman as we landed on Skymoot, the couple coming down the ramp just behind me, some of STAR's androids following with their luggage. The smiled at the sight of her, the woman running up and hugging her.

"Katya, it's been too long," she said, and the man walked up and shook her hand, before all three turned to me.

"So, Katya's your name?" I said, motioning for the droids to begin loading the luggage into the car behind the woman.

"Indeed, sorry about the black ops stuff, but names can sometimes be dangerous things. Still, now that they're here, I would like to introduce you to…" she trailed off as the droids finished their job, and then came up beside me.

"Professor Lynn Anderson and her husband Henry. The first being the premier mind in planetary sciences, known for putting forward many theories on how terraforming could be made more efficient and faster, something not well liked by the various corporations that do terraforming for the masses. The second a former Naval Intelligence officer, responsible for more than his fair share of stories, including several leaked documents that implicated Syndicate CEOs in some worlds financial troubles," said the AI, giving the same report he'd given me when he'd gotten a good scan of the couple.

"You've figured out our game then, I take it?" she asked me after a moment, and I nodded.

"STAR looked up their faces on the net. While Professor Lynn's features are obscured well by the makeup she's using, Mr. Anderson's aren't well hidden just because he's wearing a very gaudy shirt and some sunglasses, especially since he had to take those off to sleep. Mind, that does beg the question of why?" I admit, and the gentleman actually looks a bit abashed at having been so easily found out.

"Ah, yes, why defect to the Free Worlds? It's because they plan on making a dream of mine come true, Admiral Sage," answered Lynn.

"I want to make worlds that humans can thrive on, not just survive. I want real Paradise worlds to extend to more than just the rich and powerful. Those same people, however, don't like that idea. It's too expensive, too time consuming, and some even admit, they simply don't want the masses to have too easy lives, as it would let them multiply to easily," she explained, and I nodded at that. New Boston was a core world in all but name, but only partially terraformed, to the point where it was livable, if not comfortable. That did indeed reduce the population by simply ensuring there weren't enough resources to go around.

"The Free Worlds see things differently then, I take it?" I asked, and Katya nodded.

"Indeed. We see the benefit to humanity to having more worlds that are perfect for us, rather than just good enough. We even think that giving government control of that sort of thing, rather than a megacorps that do so now, will help build stronger infrastructure than we've got now. Maybe we can even get worlds that are truly self sufficient, rather than the web of commerce that's needed now," she explained.

"I see. Follow up question then. Why did the Navy stop us? That was a lot of effort to search my ship, and they had to know the Andersons were on board. Why not grab them?" I asked, and Katya actually laughed, a rather pleasant sound.

"That would be because they can't officially act against Professor Lynn. She's got too much of a public profile to act against without being obvious. Her husband, well, if they tried to make him vanish, would be noticed almost immediately by all the wrong people. One's too known in public circles, one in private. Add in the fact that your fleet would probably take a good deal more firepower to destroy than they would like, and you become the perfect person to bring them to us," she laid out, and again, I nodded, it made sense. It made me feel a bit used, but it did show trust to explain this to me now.

"What were they searching for then? If they weren't going to just grab Lynn and Henry?" I said, asking the obvious followup.

"My equipment. It includes some data and materials that are considered to be highly improper for a civilian to own. Not illegal, just worrisome. Ms. Katya already had those out of my lab by the time we came to you," answer Lynn.

"Exactly. The ship carrying them was supposed to arrive before your more obvious fleet, which was going to be the distraction. However, given how quickly you arrived, it won't be here for a few days," added Katya herself.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take these two to their new home here on Skymoot, where we can set up what we can of Mrs. Anderson's lab before the equipment arrives," as Katya spoke, the Andersons both climbed into the waiting car. Just before she followed them, however, Katya turned back to me.

"You impressed me, a lot, with your work here. I know a professional when I see one, and I have another transport job that needs doing. If you're willing to help us some more, I'll be at the spaceport bar after helping the Andersons settle in," she said, tossing a high value credit chit towards me, before the car started off. Watching it fade, I played with the card in my hand, before telling STAR to return to the ship, while I made my way towards the port itself.


	36. Finding Eyes

"Ah, there you are," said Katya as she entered the bar, where I was nursing a soda, rather than one of the more robust drinks. She, without prompting, sat down at the table I was at, and pulled out a sheet from her pocket.

"I'm afraid I have a meeting to get to soon, so I'll make this quick. We have another friend in Republic Space who wishes to join us here in the Free Worlds," as she spoke, she unfolded the paper to reveal a photo, with a name on it, as well as a map to a system near the core.

"Mr. Ijs?" I asked, curious about the name, and she nods.

"He prefers Mr. Eyes. I...well, his work is rather unusual, but I can assure you, this one isn't so confusing as the last. We just need someone to get him before he moves on again, as he's a bit flighty. Your ships, despite their number, can move faster than anything we have, so I'll ask you to go there and get him," she explained, and I take the paper to go over the details.

"He's going to come willingly?" I ask, and Katya again nods.

"Absolutely. We've already contacted him, it's just been a matter of getting to him. He's not well liked by some of the corporate heads in the Syndicate. They're skirting the edges of the law, but so long as you can get there before he has to move, he'll come," she say, and this tame I nod, putting the sheet into my pocket, and rising, downing my drink and then tossing a chit on the table.

"I'll be back with your friend soon," I tell her simply, and then walk away, returning to my own ship, and the launching. It took us less than a week to make it to Foundry, the world on which Mr. Eyes was staying. Landing was easy enough, and I did the same as before, sending out a signal that was supposed to tell my passenger his ride had arrived, before walking down to the bay so I could go outside. The very instant the ramp was down, a man wearing a large, conspicuous….everything really, trench coat, sunglasses, and even hauling a huge metal briefcase, came charging up the ramp, diving in, while looking behind him.

"Close, it quickly," he shouted, and STAR did just that, while I offered the man a hand up.

"I'm Sage, Admiral of the fleet, and Captain of this ship," I told him, and the man nodded.

"Ijs Springboard," he said, slowing taking off the coat and glasses, tossing them aside like they were on fire, while grabbing the case and holding it close.

"Councilor Reynolds told me you would get here quickly, but I must admit, that was still a surprise," he said, and at that I started a bit.

"Wait, Councilor? Katya's a member of the Free World's leadership?" I asked, and the man actually laughed.

"You mean you didn't recognize her? That woman served two full terms in the Republic Senate, representing the entire Dust Belt. Defender of the small, the powerless, and the disenfranchised. Made her almost as unpopular as myself amongst the halls of power, and that's pretty difficult, given what I do," he explained, as I began to lead him towards the quarters we'd selected for him. STAR's androids offered to take his suitcase, but the man kept a tight grip on the thing, while allowing them to take the coat and glasses.

"And what is it that you do?" I asked him.

"Vigilante Nuclear Power Plant Inspector," he said, presenting me with a business card that said exactly that, while he smiled at me in a warm, but somehow mocking way. Stunned for a moment, I looked at the card, and then back at him.

"Uh...what?" I say, and this gets the man to laughing, pausing as he holds himself against the wall, before he catches his breath.

"Sorry, I do love doing that. I mean I'm a nuclear physicist. I go from world to world inspecting power grids. If I find a flaw, like a leaky reactor or a bad disposal dump, I call in the Atomic Energy Safety Commission to make things right. Needless to say, the Syndicate, who's always cutting corners, really can't stand it when I pay a visit," he explains, and then motions for his card back.

"Only keep it around for the look on people's faces," he tells me, slipping it back into his pocket, and giving me a moment to collect my thoughts, before we continue on.

"So, why is someone of your skills off to the Free Worlds?" I asked, as we finally get to his cabin, and he sets his case down on the bed, before taking a seat.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to be inspecting the blast sites of the attacks, and not only prove the Free Worlds didn't do them, but then help find the ne'er do wells that did. With them in hand, it should be easy to get the Republic to back off, and give the Free Worlds breathing room," he explained, and once again, I nodded.

"So, you don't believe they were behind the attacks?" I stated, both in question and as a fact of the matter.

"Do you? I doubt it, if you did, you wouldn't have agreed to come get me. But regardless, I've looked into it. The attacks, so close to the declaration of independence, has only hurt the Free Worlds cause. Better, I've known Katerina and the rest of those leading the Free Worlds for a while. They were good, honest people, whenever I needed a hand with taking on corruption. It wouldn't make sense for them to be involved in something like that," he answered.

"Alright then, what's our first step?" I said, deciding quickly this was something I could help with, and maybe get some info to help my own case.

"We go to Geminus. I'll explain more once we get there, but I need to see the attack site itself, and after that, I can tell you how we'll proceed," he told me, and I made for the door, only for him to catch my hand as I turned.

"I should warn you, I seem to have attracted the wrong sort of attention lately. Specifically I seem to attract pirates, quite a few of them. I don't know who, but I bet someone put a price on my head," he explained, and this time it was my turn to laugh.

"Not a problem, Mr. Eyes. You sit tight, and my fleet and I will get you where you need to be," I tell him, before walking back out and making my way to the bridge.


	37. The Search Begins

"That is quite the fleet," said Eyes as we entered the Castor system, watching out the window as my group of Shield Beetles fell into line. I said nothing, just smiling as we grouped up, no one stopping us as we made our way towards the former, and future, home of the Republic Shipyards. Once there, a group broke off, copies of Eyes briefcase, a sophisticated suite of sensors, growing on their hulls as they slowly made their way into the atmosphere. Looking at the incoming data, Eyes almost seemed giddy.

"Oh, this is just fantastic. Those are so much sharper than I was expecting, and with these readings I can tell you the instant we find the place where these bombs were made," he explained, showing me some of the readouts. It was gibberish to me, but he explained how fissionable materials all had unique isotopic signatures, depending on world mined on, and reactor used. It wouldn't be definitive evidence, but it would be a big clue, and better than that bombs like this tended to be made in groups, if they could find a test site where others of the same make were detonated for trial, they could point some very large fingers at the actual bombers.

"Alright, everything is logged and filed. We should proceed to Rand now. That's in the," I cut him off, bringing up the galactic map.

"Zeta Aquilae system. I helped them with some Terraforming recently. Slamming asteroids into planets is a bit violent, but I've been keeping tabs, and it seems they're doing well," I say, locking in the course, and we flash away. A few days later we arrive in the system, the fleet taking up positions around the planet as we land, with Eyes going over his data, and taking further readings. Apparently while it's unlikely, Rand is a possible test site for the nukes. While he goes over it, Katya arrives, and I allow her on board, one of the droids guiding her to the bridge.

"Certainly a large ship you have here, Mr. Sage," she tells me as I offer her a seat, one literally growing out of the floor for her. She thanks me, and then we both turn to Eyes, who is very much consumed by his research.

"You've been briefed on the plan, I take it?" she asks, and I nod.

"Indeed I have, Councilor," I answered, emphasising the last word, which made her wince a little.

"I see you've learned a bit more about me. Can't be helped I suppose," she said, passing me a credit chit with some nice zeroes on it, that I pocket, while we wait for Eyes to finish his data mining. It takes him almost an hour, with me distracted myself using the game, almost guiding my hapless protagonist into a duel to the death with a demon lord of the underworld, when he suddenly bounced up, swearing in some unknown tongue for a moment.

"Bad news?" I ask, saving my game with a touch, and then turning to him.

"Um, you could say that. My scanners are good, but they're designed for high impact studies, not sifting through background radiation like you find on a world like Rand. I can pick up the stuff with ease, but I can't get a fine enough reading with my equipment to actually tell you if they match the readings at Geminus," he says, showing me the data on the floating screen. As it's just a bunch of formulas and numbers, I decide to take his word for it.

"So, we need better scanners?" I ask, and he shakes his head.

"We do, but you can't just buy the type we need. No, we need military grade stuff, the kind you find on Navy sensor drones," he says. Katya, who had been reading something, paused as her expression became very thoughtful.

"Mr. Sage, are you familiar with the Derelict and Salvage Act of 2976?" she chimed in, and I had to think for a moment myself, but then shook my head.

"I'm afraid not," I tell her, and she gets a rather wicked smile on her face.

"You probably wouldn't, unless you traveled in the higher circles of power. Simply put, the Syndicate wanted the Navy to protect their automated mines and such, you know, the kind they leave in asteroid fields to break down rocks, that you can collect from a year later. They're a favorite target of pirates, given they tend to have good parts, and some nice ore, with very few defenses," she began, quickly bringing up another holographic display, and then sliding it over to me when she found the relevant document online.

"Suffice it to say, it can be stretched a bit to include any sort of automated unit, like say, a surveillance drone. One the mothership slaps one down, it becomes salvageable by anyone who can claim it. We find one of those, we find our equipment," she explains, and I get a thoughtful expression thinking about that, before I shake my head.

"I've got another idea," I say, and have them leave the bridge for a few minutes. A few minutes later I get on the comm to Tagon's Toughs, the mercenary group that had helped me previously with capturing the Korath Raider. It took less than a minute to explain what I wanted, and even less time for them to admit to having done such salvage in the past. A few thousand credits and they sent the schematics over, with STAR growing one of the sensors on our hull, before I called the two back in.

"Um, that...these designs aren't on the net, at all, they're kept in secure servers in the Republic Shipyards. How did you…?" asked Katya as she looks over the specs, but Eyes is already diving into his work again, using the sensors to scan the planet easily, finding all sorts of things out, but it would take him a while to go over all of it.

"So, where are you from?" she asked, as we waited, and I gave her an abridged version of my life story. I left out most of my adventures amongst the stars, figuring they'd make for a good story later, but for now, she just wanted background. As it was, turned out she was Dust Belt baby herself. Born and raised on Hope, before the Supervolcano there exploded. That seemed to jar a memory loose, so I decided to follow up on it.

"How'd you survive that?" I asked, and she seemed to hug herself a moment, wrapping her arms around her chest protectively, before taking in a deep breath, and sighing it back out.

"Well, we were on the other continent when it blew. It was bad, sure, lots of infrastructure destroyed by the quake, but the worst effects weren't going to hit us for a while. Evacuation should have been easy, and the Navy did send boats to start taking people off world, but it was slow going. Even with their fleets, only a few hundred per ship were able to go, and by the time Parliament actually got moving, we were in danger of losing people to the encroaching clouds of dust and debris," as she spoke, STAR began to display an image of a port on his screen, one I didn't recognize, but when she saw it, Katya gasped.

"That's…" she trailed off, holding out a hand towards it.

"New Vertiform City, Capital of Hope. It was where I was docked when the eruptions happened. My owner, she wanted to save people, and when the Navy started drafting ships, paying any captain to save as many as possible, my chassis, a shuttle, was used. We loaded a family aboard, some of the last to leave as they were family of the colony leadership. One was a young woman, about eighteen who'd caught a virus. She was very sick, and my owner comforted her," he said this while showing a view from a two dimensional image of a person looking down at a sick girl.

"That was me. I got sick, we had to pay a lot of money to make me better. That was...where's your owner now?" she asked, and the STAR android on the bridge looked sadly to her.

"My owner at the time was not in the best of health, and mixed with all the problems, she fell ill shortly after dropping off the first load of passengers. She was attempting to return to Hope, to get more survivors, when I was forced to set down on New Boston due to her growing too weak to fly. She died there, and I was confiscated," he told her in a dour tone.

"That woman, she was so kind...was there nothing anyone could do for her?" she asked, and STAR again shook his head.

"It's possible had she not been so unfortunate as to land on New Boston, something could have been done. There, however, she was trapped on a world without many offworld niceties like modern medicine, and most travel was restricted," he explained, and that seemed to cause Katya to collapse in on herself.

"What about your family? They got away?" I asked, trying to turn to happier subjects, and Katya did seem to brighten up.

"Yes, my father stayed with me, til I got better, then I started my career in politics. If the Parliament had just gotten off their duffs a bit earlier, none of that would have happened. The Navy wanted to help, they sent almost half the fleets to do so, and even drafted civilian ships, but the Admiral in charge of the operation, despite getting everyone off Hope, was forced to resign. I vowed to change that, to get them to understand how it felt. But they always argued against making non-Paradise worlds better off, or to help those less fortunate," she said, Ijs, at his station, turned to face us.

"It's true, they sound bad, but it's just...I grew up on Vinci, and I remember the reports of Hope. How every adult got angry for the Navy going off to save those people. They kept talking about Pirates, Aliens, even the Alphas returning while they were away. From their perspective, they pay taxes, about ten times more than the Dust Belt planets do, and that means they should be protected, first and foremost. Everyone else comes after," he explained, and we all sat in silence for a time, before his station pinged at him. Turning back to it, he pressed a few buttons, before calling out over his shoulder.

"This place isn't the one, the new sensors confirm it. I think we have a slight lead though. Looks like there's something on Oblivion worth checking out. If you're up for it, Admiral Sage," he says, and in answer, I bring of the map, and set us on course, launching once more into space.


	38. The Brothers(And Sisters) Of Harmony

Oblivion, sadly, proved to be another dead end. There were some isotopes in the air, but not the ones we were looking for. At that point, I suggested splitting the fleet up, sending groups of ships around, but Ijs rained on that parade, pointing out that only he knew what we were looking for, even with the sensors attuned the way they were. STAR agreed with him, admitting even his mind wasn't sure what the good Vigilante Nuclear Power Plant Inspector was seeing in the reams of data.

We discussed it for a while, given it could take months to search every single planet in human space for the test site, and finally they agreed, we needed a lead. Greenrock was suggested, and while I could afford it, they said bribing our way on planet would probably prove fruitless. We needed a contact to get us down without scaring away the information brokers. Luckily, they knew someone, an order of monks known as the Brothers of Harmony, based on the world named Harmony in the Girtab system.

Landing there proved difficult, as the planet barely had a spaceport, which forced me to again let my pilots feed off the local primary as my ship landed. From there it was a short trek into the mountains, and a ride up a long elevator to finally reach the Monastery where the Brothers of Harmony met. Exiting the lift, I stared out at said Monastery in shock, the riot of colors assaulting my eyes, and the smell of hay and grass an odd counterpoint to the snow and ice that I knew lay beyond.

The building of the Monastery were built of what looked like blue, clear crystal, inlaid with circuits that allowed screens to be brought up on almost any of them. On those screens one could watch many a scene that appeared to be an old two dimensional cartoon, with odd looking quadrupeds going about their lives. The Brothers(And sisters it should be noted), sometimes stopped in their toiling and lives to sometimes sit and watch one of the scenes, before making an odd gesture of placing their fist against it, and then continuing on.

The Monks themselves wore clothing that was of the same make, one could see that easily, and yet, the colors. Robes and hoods, almost always of two different hues, and none of them seeming like the sombre tones one would expect of an monastic order. Instead most of them were bright, with pastels and the like. From orange robe with purple hood, to red robe with orange, and even one that was a bright shade of gray with a yellow for its top, each was pristine, and clean.

Looking closer, I could see every robe had a mark on the front, and like the colors themselves, it appeared to be unique. Some were as simple as lines, done in odd designs. Other were full pictures, with things like a tri-colored shield with a lightning bolt on it, a large green apple with a slice taken out of it, and finally three bubbles, respectively for the three I'd been observing before. No one seems to comment on my gaze, as Ijs seems to know right where to go, walking up to a figure in a snow white robe, with a hood that appears to have been made of rainbow colored fabric that shifted color in the light.

"You have come to us, and the Harmony greets you as a Friend," said the person, turning to reveal what looked like an old man, at least twenty years the senior of Ijs. Upon seeing the face of the man, Ijs does a double take.

"David, is that you?" he asks, and the man smiles gently, nodding his head.

"It is, Eyes, though you should be able to tell by my robes I am properly addressed as Solaris now," he explains, waving us to follow him as he walks out of the plaza area, to a side room.

"I would ask why you have come, but I believe I can guess. You are looking for information regarding the atomics that were used on the Stock Exchange and Shipyards," he said, settling down onto a bench on one wall, while we took our seats on the other.

"Heh, surprised you guys could take your eyes away from the 'Sacred Screens' long enough to figure that out," he said, in a way that, had I just been reading it, I would have assumed he was being insulting, but his tone, and the chuckles of the man said otherwise.

"It is not everyday one needs to take in the Gospel of Harmony. It is, in fact, a gross negligence on our part to do so, as it would involve ignoring the worlds beyond, and holding the Spark within ourselves, rather than sharing it," he explained, more to Katya and myself than Ijs, who just smiled at him.

"You mean you really worship an old cartoon?" I ask, unable to hold myself back from the question. Katya at first seems rather aghast that I would be so up front about the question, but the man in the white robes just shrugs, revealing a sun symbol emblazoned about his chest.

"Is it so strange to do so? For many years, text written by men, were claimed to be the world of God, and they guided many down a path of violence and war. Our teachings are not so harmful, showing us how to live with the five virtues. A Kind Heart, a Generous Hand, a Loyal Mind, an Honest Tongue, and a Mirthful Laugh. To have these five Elements, is to know the Spark. Can you say your religion teaches such gospel?" he asked.

"Not even close, but then, my gospel is rather empty of such things. I merely live my life to better myself, and if I can, maybe help others," I answer bluntly, without a moment's hesitation.

"Such is the way of men. Still, you try to help, and that is more than some. To business then, as I must be at the Sundown ceremony soon. What do you need, Eyes?" he asked, turning to face the man.

"Brother Greg, he's still the one in charge of the outreach to pirates and miscreants, right?" answered Ijs. His response, however, was surprisingly a shake of the head.

"I'm afraid Greg has left us, for greener pastures like yourself. The last contact I had with him said he was working on Tezard designing ships along with many others. Sister Li, now Gleaming Shield, does that business," answers Solaris, before pressing a button on the wall. A screen lights up, and he began to talk with someone on the other end of the line.

"You don't seem surprised that the monks have an outreach program to pirates and the like," says Katya, making small talk while we wait.

"I recently had it pointed out to me that the average pirate crew is gotten via conscription, rather than offers of money. Makes sense that people like these would want to try and guide the young off such paths," I answer, thinking of the two I'd left on Millrace. Before I could say more, another figure joined us, a woman in a white robe with a blue hood. Her emblem was a blue shield with purple stars on it, and a stripe that gave it a look like it was shining.

"You called for me, Prince Solaris?" she asked, bowing her head.

"Yes, we have need of you. Our friends are looking for information regarding the bombings a few years ago in the Republic. Perchance do you think your contacts on Greenrock might prove helpful?" he asked, and the woman nodded.

"Of course. I have been wondering when someone would get around to investigating such things," she said, getting a warm smile from the older man.

"Excellent. I'm afraid she must stay for the Sundown and Sunrise Ceremony, her husband is being anointed as Prince Bolero tonight, and they are to be given the evening to enjoy it. Would you care to join us for tonight? We can offer you places at our table for dinner tonight, and breakfast in the morning," he offered. After a bit of prodding from the other two in my party, I accepted, on the condition that I contact my fleet, to prevent any misunderstandings.

That evening, I saw how the Brothers of Harmony lived. They ate rather well, for being monks. I had expected porridge, water, and bread to be the fare, but instead they feasted, large tables covered in a variety of foodstuffs, with apple and their derivatives being the most prominent dish. After food, Solaris stood before the congregation, and made motions, as if lowering the sun, while a woman in a dark blue robe with a hood that sparkled like the night sky, stood beside him, and did a similar pantomime, appearing to raise the moon.

When that was done, they brought up Gleaming Shield and her husband, a man wearing a pink robe with a crystal in the shape of a cartoon heart on it. He appeared the two on the dias at the front, and was asked several questions, which at first I thought were trivia about their little cartoon, but turned out to be morals taught by the same, to make sure he understood it I suppose. When the last was asked, Solaris and the woman who appeared to be named Luna, placed a hood of ethereal looking pink on his head, the man wearing it well as he and the woman embraced and kissed.

What followed was a party, led by another pink robed woman, with balloons on her chest. She passed out pastries of every description, threw decorations hither and yon, and even led several songs that I actually found myself humming along with despite myself. When that was done, everyone congratulated the pair, before shuffling off for the night. Katya, Ijs, and myself were housed in an out of the way room that was far larger than I expected, with us waking up the next morning, to Gleaming Shield at our door.

"I believe I'll be staying here, while you two go off. Even with your fleet, Admiral Sage, a pirate world is no place for someone with a price on their head," he explained, as he closed the door behind us, and I led the way down the mountain, easily finding the path to the port.

"So, do I call you Gleaming, or Shield?" I asked to make conversation on the way down, and the woman just laughed.

"Neither. While out of the Monastery, I am to be called by my old name. My title is merely traditional. So please, simply refer to me as Li. It is my family name. Or if you prefer, my personal name is Nalas," she explained.

"Nalas Li?" I asked, and she shook her head.

"No, Li Nalas. I use the name in the way my ancestors did," she responded, and I nodded thoughtfully as we finally arrived at the port, and quickly shuffled into my ship.


	39. The Search Ends

Greenrock proved to be an easy place to land. Mrs. Li spent barely a minute talking to people over the comms before my ship was given a dock. Well, to call it that was to overstate it. The place was only slightly above the concrete circles on New Boston, with only some mag clamps on the sides to help with maintenance of the ship being more advanced than that. Still, we landed easily, my Shield Beetle dwarfing most everything else in the port, and then we made our way into the city beyond.

Li then dragged me around to every back alley and dealer in town. All of them had a smile for her, the instant they saw her robes, and some even made the fist gesture to her, allowing her to place her knuckle against theirs, before she got on to business. Sadly, most of that business was them telling us they had no information, no contacts, and not even a single lead. She would thank them, and then offer them chits for a few hundred credits, before encouraging me to follow her out of the slimy place.

Finally, we reached what she claimed was the end of the line, a small, rundown hotel that catered to a certain type of clientele. Here, in some dark room that smelled of things I don't even want to think about, we found a man wearing the same grimy clothing as everyone else. However, one glance at him told you he wasn't the same. He stood a bit too straight, he carried himself heavily, and most importantly, Li had us come in unannounced so we got a peek into his closet, which had a comm rig in it that was definately Navy in origin.

It took a few minutes of Li talking to him for his story to come out. He was a Navy Intelligence Officer, supposedly retired, but really he was active duty, spying for them out here. He had contact with the Brothers of Harmony, due to their operations overlapping with his. After that, Katya was able to convince him of who she was with a quick photo and database search, and he began to tell us what NI thought of the situation. Namely they didn't believe the Free Worlds attacked them either.

He gave a lot of reasons for this, including motive, economic consequences, and a few others things. I only really paid attention when he got to the info we needed. Namely, the Navy was already searching for the test site, and had done their best, scanning everywhere they could. The list of worlds they'd already gone to was extensive, and he admitted, for the most part, they were cursory scans. Atmosphere only sorts of things. He advised us to tell Ijs to search for something less noticeable. Namely somewhere with a lot of deep mines, or possibly an ocean on a world with a lot of asteroid impacts, where a nuke could be detonated, and the vibrations the explosion caused could be masked.

The information in hand, we left the hotel behind, and made our way back to Harmony. Mrs. Li happily meets up with her husband at the port as we land, and Ijs comes aboard, looking back on the monastery with a rather longing gaze, as if he wants to stay. He does finally turn to us, however, and we give him the intel. After a few minutes browsing the network for planets, and listing out their info, he comes up with a few candidates in the local area, as well as some more distant ones in Syndicate space. For now, we decide to test the near ones, and set off to the first possible site.

Sadly, our first three stops found nothing. Our fourth stop had Katya in a funk, as we were running out of local places to check, and while I was confident we could do the same search in Syndicate space, she wasn't so sure that was a good idea. It was, after all, a sovereign state like the Deep. Nominally it was part of the Republic, in actuality it paid taxes, and that was the only link it had to the Parliament, with the mega corp itself in control of the worlds. If she went snooping through their business, it could make trouble for the Free Worlds.

Ijs and I convinced her to keep going, mostly by reminding her that this was the only way to bring a lasting peace, rather than the war footing everyone was on right now. With her confidence boosted, she ordered us to take her to Clink, the moon in the sky over the world we were on. It was the last world in the local area, and who knew, it might be the place we were looking for. So we launched off towards the mining site, and with a few quick scans, Ijs got very, very excited.

"Yes, yes, YES!" he shouts, his displays showing data I couldn't hope to read, at least until he brought two screens together, showing that the isotopic signatures in Clink's atmosphere were a perfect match to those we'd taken on Geminus. This was definitely the place where the weapons had been tested. He even determined when it happened, and later where. That led to the odd revelation, however.

"You're sure this is the spot?" asked Katya, as we flew over a crater. It was on the far side of the planet, unremarkable from all the others similar craters that dotted the moon's surface, save the scanners giving readings of high radiation content in the air.

"Positive, this is the remains of a detonation," he confirmed, and we all sat there, thinking the same thing. Navy Intelligence had to know about this. Clink was on the only path into the Free Worlds, and Navy ships entered and exited the system all the time. Yet for some reason, the Navy hadn't acted. Someone, somewhere high up, was suppressing this information somehow, and that spoke of power far beyond the norm.

"Alright, we've got the site, but no one here's reporting anything. That's...tell me, STAR, are there any job openings in the local mines?" asked Katya after a few minutes.

"There are always job openings in a mine like this. However, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking, Ms. Katerina, then there is an administrative assistant's position that is vacant at the moment," said the AI, bringing up the listing on a screen in front of her. She quickly filled out the application for it, and got approved in moments.

"Are you sure about this, Katya? This won't be the most pleasant workplace, and more, it'll be dangerous in the extreme," advised Ijs, but the woman shook her head.

"No, I've got to do this. We can't wait much longer, and I need to know how this is being kept from us. You go back to Zug, and give them all the data. When I find out who's controlling the information, I'll call you, and you two can come riding in like my knights in shining armor," she says, and with that, we land at the pad for the building she'll be working in. A quick word with a manager, and she's on her way, while we shoot off once more into the heavens.


	40. The Pieces Fall Into Place

I dropped off Ijs on Zug, the man telling me how grateful he was for my help, and asking me to be ready, as the next act in this particular drama could start again at any time. I said I would, and then shot off into space again, finding the stars just a little less bright as I did so now that I was once more alone on my ship. Idly, I toyed with the idea of heading back to the Monastery, or perhaps just going to the Syndicate worlds and doing scans myself, to see if there was anything I could find out. Finally, after much thought, I decided to just fly around randomly again, making it known that I was open for jobs for the Free Worlds.

I got a convoy guard job that I quickly negotiated down to just getting the stuff myself. Wayfarer in the Tarazed system was the delivery point for supplies from the Syndicate apparently, including weapons and ship outfits, which surprised me. It seemed the megacorp was actually supplying both sides in this little war, and that might be suspicious, though I filed it away for later, merely hauling the supplies I'd gotten back to Longjump. There, I was paid a handsome sum, due to doing at least eight trips worth of hauling, before another officer approached me, the same woman who'd given me the job of going after the Rat Pack.

This time the job was to hunt a freighter called the Moonless Night. Apparently the retrofitted ship had been preying on ships, acting wounded, and then pouncing with battleship grade weapons. The job itself proved much simpler, both because it was a single target, and more importantly, the trick didn't really work when you were flying a fleet like mine. This time, I captured the vessel, however, sending the crew to Harmony, and executing the officers, before returning.

There, I found out about a transport ship, Shackleton, that had gotten lost somewhere between stops. With a quick look, we found it disabled in an out of the way system, and escorted it on its way, finding more than one pirate group seemed to want the ship. As it eventually turned out, that was due to the ship carrying several tonnes of valuable gems, used both for their beauty, and in circuitry around the galaxy. The glittering hoard was worth more than even my own finances would allow me to buy easily, and thus, worth the price to the pirates.

Upon our return, the woman with the bounties had another one for us. This time it was unique, however, as the ship was using some unknown weapon they were having trouble defending against. I assured her my fleet could deal with it, and we launched out, to Greenrock where the Silverhawk was supposedly hiding. We easily entered the system, sadly, without Li on our side, we couldn't land, but it only took a few hours for the ship, an Osprey, to show itself. The ship, as expected, had alien weapon, specifically, Hai ion cannons.

Luckily, the cores on my ships were more than capable of keeping up with the energy drain, allowing us to disable it with only a second or so of fire from the fleet. Unluckily, the captain of the ship had no idea how the weapon worked, and apparently tried to fire it despite the damage to their ship. This caused a rupture that tore the vessel apart, leaving a mystery as to how they got their hands on an alien weapon. That last was especially puzzling due to the Navy ships lining the jump points between here and the Republic.

Upon returning to recieve my bounty, I had a message waiting for me. My good work of late had apparently caught the eye of the Council...not surprising given I'd been directly assisting a member of it. What was surprising was that the note was handwritten, not printed, meaning they were taking me seriously. Sadly, Katya's name amongst the five appeared to be a stamp, rather than handwriting, probably meaning she was still on Clink. Buoyed up regardless, I made my way to Bourne, the capital of the Free Worlds.

There, after giving my name, Bandit, Joe, and I were quickly shuffled into a room where two men were in a heated discussion while looking at a galactic map. They tabled this as we entered, their eyes going to my companions, and then back to me, as I offered a hand, and quickly introduced myself. They took the handshake, offering their own names as Alondo Gruyere and Tomek Voigt. The former the top diplomat of the Free Worlds, the latter, commander of the Military for the same.

"It has come to our notice, Mr. Sage, that you've been doing good work for us of late, despite being nominally unaligned in our little cold war. That is quite the dangerous line to walk," said Tomek, pouring himself a drink, and then offering me a glass. I turned it down, as did the others, so he just shrugged, and with a toss, downed the whole thing in one swallow.

"To business then. I have to admit, we were surprised by what you've done. Your fleet is large enough, that you could have set yourself up as some tinpot dictator of an out of the way system, and continue to hold it forever. Why are you helping us? Do you really believe in our cause?" asked the military man, and Alondo beside him looked ready to say something. I cut him off, however, with a gesture.

"I helped out because I was here, and it was something to do. I will admit, your politics bore me. I could care less about who owns what pile of dirt. I did however, lose a friend in the bombing, and would very much enjoy bringing the ones who did that down. More importantly though, I have two more people I need to kill, before I can make peace with my life," I told them bluntly, and then laid a small disk on the desk. Taking it, Tomek eyed the thing for a moment, before shoving it into the drive, and soon the image of Charles and Dorien replaced the galaxy.

"Hmm, a personal vendetta. That is something I can understand. Tell me, who are they?" asked Tomek.

"The last two remaining of the Old Men from New Boston. There were five. These two are named Charles and Dorien, with Claire, Hobbes, and Bernard having died because of me. Call me old fashioned, but I want to finish the whole set," I told them darkly,and it seemed that Alondo took offense for some reason, but Tomek smiled.

"I can see where that would be nice. I must admit to never having heard of 'The Old Men' before, but I recognize some of those names from circles of power, names that have recently vanished. If they're the ones you're talking about, you did the galaxy a service getting rid of them, and I can see my way to helping you finish, if you help us," he told me, and I nodded. We spent the remainder of the evening going over the fine details of employment with the Free Worlds, only to be interrupted by an alarm.

"Sir Voigt, I'm afraid I have bad news. The Kornephoros system fell a few minutes ago," said a voice on the other end of the line, and we dropped our discussion to focus on this. Details were given in a military way, mostly that the Navy had entered the system in force, and then declared it was the place the bombs had been made, before cordoning off the whole system. The local militia, barely a hundredth the size of the Navy fleet they'd sent, surrendered easily, and now they controlled everything.

"What about Katya, has she returned?" I asked, and that got the two Councilors to look at each other, and then back to me. Apparently, while they'd known she'd gone undercover, they hadn't heard much in the way of details, leaving me to explain that Katya was in the Kornephoros system, on Clink, where indeed, the bombs had been tested at some point, though whether they were made there or not I didn't know.

"Hmm, that does create a conundrum, but you yourself present a fantastic solution," said Alondo, gesturing us towards the galactic map.

"If you go there now, as a still mostly unaffiliated captain, they'll let you into the system. You run in, get Katya, and get out. Simple, no?" he said, and I shook my head.

"We can try, but even if they let me land, they might still make a grab for Katya. She'd be a valuable prisoner," I explain, but Tomek waves the concern off.

"True, but if it fails, I'll be right behind you, gathering as much forces at Longjump as I can. If you find her, that's fine. If not, we can roll in and take the planet back," he declared, it seemed like Alondo wanted to argue for a moment, but he held his tongue as my companions and I left the office, quickly going to the port, and then towards Clink in the far off sky.


	41. War was Beginning

Landing on Clink proved far easier than expected. Finding Katya though, without tipping anyone off as to who she was, proved far more difficult. Sadly, trying every avenue, including attempting to sneak into the office she'd been in, proved impossible. The Navy officer who caught me that time actually seemed sympathetic to my 'sister's plight, but assured me that she had not been harmed, no one had been, and once they knew for certain what had happened, they would release everyone.

Landing back on Longjump, I was met on the pad by Tomek, who looked less disappointed than I would have expected given my lack of Katya. He explained quickly that, while he was hopeful I might be able to get her offworld, the fact that the Navy had moved as hard as it had indicated they knew something, and Katya was probably already caught. Still, she might have hidden herself, somehow, and we would be taking back the system, as soon as I declared myself for the Free Worlds.

"I even brought the paint," he joked, holding up a brush and a can, and that actually got a laugh out of me, before ordering STAR to shift the colors. Soon, my fleet, both flagship on the ground, and the ships still in orbit, were sporting the green of the Free Worlds, rather than merchant blue. This was important, he explained, as without this sign, I would be labeled a partisan or pirate, rather than an enemy combatant, which had at least some rules on how I was to be treated. Just as he finished explaining, sirens went off in the port, and he quickly grabbed a comm station.

"Report!" he ordered, as a face came up on a screen.

"Sir, there's Navy ships entering the system a lot of them. I think it's the Fourth Fleet, mostly landing craft, with a few heavy hitters thrown in. They're claiming that they've been ordered to re-establish Republic control of the system," said a panicked sounding voice, and I could see why as the tactical display was overlaid on the screen. There simply wasn't time to launch anything from the ground, a process that could take minutes, and the Free Worlds had few ships in space at the moment that were actually capable of combat.

"Foxtrot! We can't let them take this system. Without it, we'll be bottled up, and they'll have the stronghold position," he swore, and I turned to the android beside me. He didn't even need a word to open a channel, his hand soon at me in a way to say I was live with my fleet.

"All forces, we're with the Free Worlds now, and that means this world is under our protection. The incoming fleet is to be neutralized, ASAP!" I ordered, and got a click of confirmations. Suddenly the tact screen showed a lot more green dots pop into existence, as my fleet requested Friend or Foe codes from the central control, soon forming an almost solid wall of metal between the fleet and Longjump.

"Limit damage to just disable. These are good soldiers, and I doubt they want a war any more than we do," ordered Tomek. I relayed that, and we sat down to watch the battle, unable to launch without risking destruction from orbital positions. That was taxing in the extreme, but with the help of STAR coordinating, projecting a 3D tact-screen for us, we could at least follow the fight, with Tomek giving advice that I tended to follow, my fleet's first pass leaving a good chunk of the Navy vessels floating hulks.

Unfortunately, these weren't pirates, or uncoordinated defenders not expecting an attack. These were trained soldiers, and at least fifty of my own ships were disabled, with a few captains actually having to abandon ship as the hulls gave out under the assault. Still, we'd inflicted far more damage to them, and a second pass showed that, as many of their landing craft decided to make a break for Longjump, rather than fight. Had they been against a less coordinated opponent, one or two of the troop carriers might have gotten through, with their thousand or so marines. Instead, by the end of the hour, space was quiet, save the pings of rescue beacons.

"Your own ships should be the ones to make recovery operations on Navy derelicts. My fleet is single persons flying vessels crewed by androids, so we should only do it with friendlies," I advised, and Tomek nodded. It took most of the rest of the day, and on into morning to save what could be saved, and to dispose of those that couldn't. Sadly, that included not only Free Worlds and Navy, but also merchant ships that happened to be caught in the crossfire, leaving many a captain with a solemn mood as day finally dawned.

Total losses were bad. Almost every ship that the Free Worlds had at Longjump as orbital defenders were gone, destroyed, and worse, most of those included the loss of the crews. My own fleet had taken only two irrecoverable losses, with the remaining ships repairing themselves over the course of the evening. Of those two, the captains had been able to abandon ship, thanks to the liquid metal construction, and were waiting for me to get them new ships, or tell them to go away.

"Four-hundred-eight-six Free Worlds citizens, dead. Almost twice that in Naval personnel, and over a hundred civilians that shouldn't have been there in the first place," said Tomek later, sighing heavily as he looked over the list of names. He began to issue orders next, mostly what to do with captured enemies, and what hulls they'd captured would be best used for spare parts, and what would be best scrapped completely. When all was said and done, it took a full two days to get everything settled, and when it was, he joined me on my bridge.

"Despite everything, we need to press the advantage we have. They just lost a lot more military potential than we did, thanks to you. We'll be launching in an hour," with that, he handed me my marching orders. I then gave a few to my crews. This included Bandit and Joe, who both insisted on giving their ships over to the captains who had lost theirs, while they joined me on mine. With them manning positions, we launched into space, and almost immediately jumped into the Kornephoros.

"Remember, our object is capture of the system. These Navy ships don't need to die for that to happen. If they retreat or surrender, accept it. No unnecessary loss of life," came Tomek's voice over the comms, and we swept forward at his command. There were few enough defenders here now, a few ragged ships with scattered pockets of heavy cruisers, that we didn't even have to do a second pass. Sadly, several casualties amongst the enemy were required, as the captains made suicide charges against my ships, but even then, they lasted minutes, before the system was officially ours.

Three days after the cold war turned into open shooting, the Free Worlds claimed their first major victory. They corralled the Navy officers and enlisted in separate areas of the planet, and I was invited down, landing just alongside troop transports, including Tomek's own. Men and women with large guns surrounded the officers, their weapons at the ready, but not pointed at the prisoners, as Tomek and I walked around to what looked like a hastily constructed stage at the side of the enclosure.

"My name is Tomek Voigt, Councilor of the Free Worlds. We lack the organized, professional fleet you Navy personnel enjoy, but we've obviously got a lot of force on our side. Still, as Commander in Chief, it's my duty to help decide the fate of prisoners we capture in this conflict, and as such, I've come to tell you how you will be treated," he said the words with conviction, before unrolling a piece of paper.

"By the power vested in me by the Free Worlds, I hereby extend this offer to all officers and soldiers of the Navy forces. You may remain prisoners until the conflict is settled between ourselves and the Republic, or, if you're willing to gives us your parole, your word of honor, that you will cease to take part in operations against us, you will be allowed to return," he gave a moment for a wave of confusion to pass through the crowd, both guard and prisoner alike seemingly taken aback by the statement.

"If you cannot find reassignment to other sections of the galaxy, you are to resign your commission, to avoid such conflicts of oaths. If you can swear to do that, you may go home. Otherwise, we will do our best to make your incarceration comfortable," he finished, and soon he had divided up the people into lines, each giving the oath to an official notary, who took fingerprint, retina, and dna scans of everyone. When it was at least half over, he asked myself and some other captains to meet him in a temporary office he'd set up in the local port's cafe.


	42. Meetings

The office in the cafe was stacked with forms, as Tomek began to fill out authorizations, issue orders, and otherwise handle the paperwork that came from running a government. He thanked all of us for our assistance, as none of us were native to the Free Worlds, despite now being members of its military. Once he'd passed out a few medals, he took me aside and laid out the next step in all this, namely, transporting the Navy personnel to a neutral planet, and then getting them back into Republic space.

My fleet was being tapped for that assignment, namely because we had the capacity for it. I did express security concerns, but Tomek assured me that Navy types were not ones to go back on their words. It was why those who took the oath to not come in conflict with the Free Worlds were being released at all. After that, he hammered out specific details with me, informing me of a temporary cease fire during the transport, and then passing me a credit chit, before shoving me out the door, so he could get back to work on other things.

Luckily, he was correct. The Navy officers and soldiers made no complaints, and didn't once try to do any damage to my vessels. Heck, one or two actually offered some advice on fuel mixtures that would improve efficiency of my engines by almost ten percent. By the time we dropped them off on New Tibet, a world controlled by Buddhist monks, I was actually somewhat sorry to see them go. After that, it was a quick jump back to Deep, where Tomek quickly took me into his office.

"I'm afraid to say, we've now got evidence to say that Katya was captured at some point during the occupation of Clink. Not as a Councilor of the Free Worlds, but as a simple spy, it seems, so there is that at least," he told me bluntly the moment the door closed.

"Well, that's a kicker. Can't we use the fact that we gave their people back to convince them to return her?" I asked, and Tomek shook his head.

"I'm afraid it's not the simple They've got to know who she is by now, Navy Intelligence has ways of making you talk when they want to. More importantly though, she'd have to take an oath similar to the Navy prisoners, and I don't see her being able to keep to it, should she be returned," he answered, and I thought on that a bit, before nodding. Katya seemed the type to ignore such promises, or at least, skirt their terms, should she believe she could do the most good doing so. And if she violated her parole, the Navy might insist they could as well.

"Okay, well, what do we do then?" I said, not a demand for action, but in genuine curiosity as to our next move.

"For now? We sit tight. No reason to hit the hornets nest, especially as it's going to take the Navy some time to shift personnel around with that oath holding so many of their forces back. Worse, they not only suffered two rather crushing defeats, but those were the assets they were keeping close to us, meaning it will take even more time to shuffle around enough ships to be a threat to us," as he spoke, he pulled out a galactic map, unrolling it, and then pointing to dots on it that represented systems.

"This means we have time to fortify and hunker down. More importantly, it means we can look for allies," as he spoke, his finger traced a line from where we were, to the heart of the Syndicate.

"You want to ally with the Syndicate?" I asked a bit incredulous at that idea. The megacorp was a business alliance, nothing more, nothing less. They, moreso even than the Republic, were the antithesis of the Free Worlds stated goals.

"Want to? No, not in the slightest. However, it would be most advantageous if we could get them to align with us, both because of their resources, and because it would deny those to the Republic," he explained, picking up a pen and drawing a route from Deep, to the world he was thinking of going to.

"Better, we've just proven to them that we can match the Navy, blow for blow. That was mostly thanks to you and your ships, I'll admit. Alondo thinks that's what makes you a good person to bring along on this mission. You, myself, and him proves how serious we are about the negotiations," he finishes, and I nod.

"Do you think the Navy would get in the way?" I ask after a few moments studying the map.

"Not entirely likely, but if they do, I would advise more disabling, but I won't say no to blowing them out of the sky," he answers. With that done, we plan out the route down to the last stop, and I bid him a good day. He and Alondo, the head of Free Worlds Diplomatic Corps, and one of its five Councilors, come aboard my personal ship after sundown, having taken hours to get their affairs in order. Once that's done, I launch us out at once, jumping the moment we're in formation with the fleet.

Landing on Hephaestus was easy, they didn't even bother with the usual checks of my ID or comm frequency. Heck, we were offered a dock in a private area, right next to the business center. Once there, the three of us were quickly shuffled into a side room, where we found ourselves confronted by security personnel. They scanned us, and confiscated weapons. When Tomek refused, he was offered another room to wait in, while Alondo and I went into a large conference room, where six men sat at a table, and gestured for us to take seats opposite them.

After that the typical scene played out, as Alondo and the old men traded pleasantries. I ignored it, without making an excuse for myself. This was not what I was here for, and I assumed they knew it. I was an independent in all of this. Oh, I flew for the Free Worlds, but a quick check into my background would tell anyone who wanted to know that I was more mercenary than patriot. That meant my actions wouldn't reflect unkindly on Alondo, so long as I wasn't openly attacking anyone at the table.

"To business then. You wish us to join ourselves to your efforts?" asked one of the men, and Alondo stared at him, probably because that was a lot blunter than he'd expected, given how much dancing around the issue they'd been doing for the last twenty minutes.

"Well, perhaps not that. We would be delighted if you chose to side with us over the Republic, but if you could remain neutral, we could see our way to signing trade deals favorable to the Syndicate's interests in the future," he offered, and the old men looked at each other, before one leaned forward. Placing his finger against the desk, he revealed it was not simple wood and metal, but circuitry, as he pressed a key built into it, and an image appeared on its surface in front of us.

"Are you saying we can believe your word of honor, when your people stoop to terrorism?" asked that one, as the image resolved into a news feed, the headline being, 'Leader of Terrorist State 'Free Worlds' captured by Navy in a Heroic action at Kornephoros system'. Below that, I saw pictures of Katya that, at first, I though were of her dead body. Luckily, that proved to just be a trick of the holo, and she did prove to be alive when the image's eyes blinked as the recording of her started, and then paused at a touch of Alondo.

"This is not a public news feed. This is only for those in high level government positions," said the diplomat of the Free Worlds, and the six old men didn't deny it.

"Such information is made available to those with enough power to find interest in Interstellar matters," explained one of them simply.

"Well then, I can say for the record that the reason this information hasn't hit the public feed is that they have no evidence against her. In fact, I have logs that prove she was actually hunting the terrorist, with the assistance of Admiral Sage and Ijs Springborn," he countered, and I nodded.

"I would be happy to share those logs, if you like," I offered.

"It won't be necessary. We keep tabs on Mr. Springborn for his...other activities, and we are aware you assisted him recently in his travels. Still, as this is the line the current leadership of the Republic is being asked to believe, I'm sure you'll understand our reluctance to do business with those they consider enemies," said one of the old men, waving his hand and suddenly showing us several charts, not all of which I understood, but the gist of it was that the Republic was currently the largest customer for the Syndicate.

"I see. I notice you've been trading with the Tarazed corporation, but your routes are right near a pirate world. Perhaps we can assist you with deliveries through that part of space. If that were to happen, I would think it safe to assume you would be able to ship even more product to Tarazed now than ever before," said the diplomat, indicating a route on the galactic map. This made a few of the old men across from his grin in a way that almost made me want to draw a weapon, but I resisted the urge.

"And, of course, who Tarazed chooses to do business with is none of our concern. Should some of our products find their way into the hands of the Free Worlds, we can claim we had no direct hand in the transaction," added one of the men. Over the next few minutes, the seven of them hammered out a deal in how exactly the trade of goods for protection, as well as money, would go. At last, everyone present agreed, and Alondo and I left. Getting Tomek back, we explained the deal, and while he grumbled about certain costs, he did agree it was worth it.

"So, what next?" I asked as we returned to my ship.

"Tarazed needs to be informed of this new deal. If you'll head there next, we can set this up with minimum fuss," said Tomek, and I set the course.


	43. Threats and Debts

Landing on Wayfarer, we are quickly allowed into a much less opulent boardroom than the one the six old men had had us in. In fact, it was obvious this place was typically used for other purposes, probably storage given the marks on the floor. Of course, that was to be expected. Tarazed was indeed a large company, given they'd named the system after it, but they were not the interstellar giant that was the Syndicate. Besides, they were actually trying to hide us being there, unlike the Syndicate board, whom I doubted cared who found out about their dealings with the Free Worlds.

Regardless, once we'd been shown in, a woman flanked by half a dozen men and women younger than her came in, issuing orders over her shoulder, before taking her seat across the simple wooden table from us. She was, according to Alondo, Emily Lane, current CEO of Tarazed, and once she confirmed who we were, she quickly lapsed into business mode. Her, Tomek, and Alondo discussed delivery, protection from pirates, and even the subject of Navy search and seizure, which they agreed the Navy couldn't do without pissing off the Tarazed corp, which was producing about twenty percent of their vessels with the Geminus Shipyard still being rebuilt.

After that, we were dismissed, as she had a lot more to do today, letting us show ourselves out. Alondo then broached the subject of Poisonwood, a planet deep in Free Worlds space that, nonetheless, was remaining loyal to the Republic. Tomek dismissed them, saying they were cowards, who wouldn't dare to stand on their own. Still, Alondo insisted on going, and Tomek allowed it, though he had one of my ships take him back to Longjump, so he could catch up on all the work they had missed over the last few weeks.

Landing on Poisonwood a few days later, Alondo and I are quickly shuffled into a waiting vehicle, and given a ride to the governor's estate. On the way, Alondo gives me a quick prep course on Poisonwood's history. Namely, this was a frontier world that had fallen farther than even the Pirate Worlds. Slavers, a lot of them, had descended on the world, and people's lives became a commodity, to be bought and sold by the powerful. The Navy, for all its inaction against the Pirate Worlds, heard of this and dispatched a huge fleet, freeing Poisonwood, and causing a debt that the locals still feel obligated by to this day.

Meeting with the governor, I'm not surprised to find it's an older woman, late fifties by her looks. She has that weary look of someone who's being drained by her job, with long drawn out sighs as she and Alondo talk. It's not important things, not really, at least to me. Mostly in how isolated Poisonwood is, especially if it won't join the Free Worlds. There are some discussions of the Navy personnel who took the Oath perhaps being allowed to defend the planet, should it come to that, but otherwise, negotiations seems stalled.

"Hmm, a good point, Ambassador Alondo. Still, what of your companion?" she says suddenly, shocking me out of the stupor, and causing me to jerk a little.

"I'm sorry, what were you discussing?" I ask, not ashamed to admit I hadn't been following. After all, I was here as a transport, not really to do the negotiating myself.

"Heh, well, to be blunt, we were discussing threats. Namely, what do you feel the greatest threat faced by the people of today is?" she asks, and I pause, my mind turning over the statement. On its surface, it's not that hard, as I can name a dozen or more threats. Yet, the tone of the question gives me a moment to think. She's not asking about local threats, like the pirates, or even asteroids or the like slamming into planets. No, the question goes deeper than that. What could threaten us as a species, spread across all of space?

"Whatever it is that's isolating the peoples of this galaxy," I said at last, a bit of a sharp pain behind my temple, causing me to wince, though it passes quickly. The two who had been doing most of the talking seem taken aback by the answer.

"I have my own answer, but you seem to know something I don't. Please, explain," she offers, and I nod.

"Well, I've been all over the galaxy now. I've been on a finished Quarg ring, two of them actually. I've met the Hai, squirrel like people in the north beyond the Republic. North of them there's even an avian race called the Wanders I know no one has heard of yet. What's more there's the Korath, both the Ah and the Za variants. Heck, I even met a Drak. Do you know what all of them have in common? Well, save that last one," I asked, and both of them shook their heads.

"They're trapped. No lanes lead into their space, and they depend on the Jump Drives, like my own fleet, to move in and out, and those aren't common devices. Yet, most have histories that speak of being great galactic powers once. Something collapsed those, perhaps the Drak, though I have my doubts there. Whatever the case, someone is isolating the peoples of the galaxy into little cages of systems. As a free, intelligent being, I find that to be a crime most reprehensible," I explain, and that gives both of them a bit of pause, as they consider my words. The woman finishes first, and nods, before presenting her arm to me, showing off crisscrossing scars in her flesh, long healed wounds.

"That threat was unknown to me, but also seems more existential than most others. If there is such a force, I doubt we could fight it. To me, to the people of my world, the most likely thing to threaten the peoples of humanity is the return of the Alphas, or their ilk. As happened here," she says that in such a way that I can draw my own conclusions, and what I draw are not pleasant. The Alphas, the greatest threat in recorded human history, and one that, by the scars on her body, I knew she was intimately familiar with.

"It was ten years of pain, of horror and death, when they came. Before that, we were what would be called a Pirate World, nominally part of the Republic, but not really. They came in great ships, destroyed the locals bosses, and claimed us all as their property. All this happened when I was five," she says as she pulls back her sleeve farther, showing patches of green, where the Alpha's had tried to inject her with their blueprints, to turn her body into a living factory to make more of them.

"They worked slowly at first. We didn't even realize what they were, as none of their spokespeople had the telltale green skin of theirs. All they were was just more people in charge. I was working at a factory, a little over fifteen, when they decided to act. We'd been building weapons, and ships, but now they wanted soldiers, so every girl was taken in, for a 'health checkup' we were told. There, they did this to me, and to hundreds of others besides. We were violated in the worst ways possible, and many vanished, we call it the Disappearance," she continued, finally rolling her sleeve back down.

"Somehow, someone got word off world when that happened. A few weeks later, the Navy sent fleets, at least five of them, to liberate us. They destroyed the shipyards we'd been building, blasting them to atoms, and then raiding facilities all over the planet, desperately trying to find the girls who had vanished, or those who had done the vanishing. But every other facility seemed rigged to blow, and after a year, they declared the threat over, and the girls likely dead, before pulling out again," she finished her story with a long sigh, and looking out a window, towards a mountain I was only now noticing was split down the middle, probably because of a massive explosion when an underground base detonated before it could be searched.

"So you see, we owe the Navy, and the Republic, for what they did for us. We don't know where those bastards are, why they picked us, or anything else. They could literally be on a nearby Pirate World, or perhaps fled human space entirely. Whatever the case, we will see our debt is paid. We won't stop you, we know you're doing what you feel is right, but you must know this. The threat of the Alphas is still out there. If you stand without the Republic, you must be on guard against them," she said the last with the conviction of a woman who would not be turned, and after a few more statements, we left, our course taking us back to Longjump, where the Free Worlds Council was apparently waiting for us.


	44. Sensors and Scientists

Landing on Longjump, I was greeted by Tomek and a woman introduced to me as Freya Winters. She was another Councilor, the one in charge of ship production for the militias originally, but now for the whole of the Free Worlds. I shook hands with her, and she looked longingly at my ships, which I offered her a tour, once our business was finished, earning me a rather teenage sounding squeal from her, before she collected herself, and we went to a nearby office. Sadly, Jean-Jacques Soleau was not present, his business keeping him away, but we had three of the five, well four with Katya missing in action, Councilors. It would be enough.

"Alright, we have some good news, and some bad news," said Alondo, filling in the others on what we'd learned. Freya even asked questions I would have expected Tomek to answer, but we didn't mind. Once that was done, Freya pulled up a map of the local systems, showing off Wei in highlights.

"This is the chokepoint. There's a few ways to reach us, but almost all routes at one point or another pass through this system. So it's here we need to set up our early warning system," she explained, zooming in the map to show the planet Hope.

"This world will serve as a good base for our sensors. Set them up all over the planet, and we should be able to track anything coming into or out of the system," she continued, adding details on how each sensor would need to be insulated and installed, including specific coordinates for each one, which should hopefully hide them away from anyone looking for them.

"Alright, get to it. When you finish, you should begin receiving telemetry from them, which should include your own ships. I think that would be a good test run for them," she finished, and I nod, as outside, STAR's androids had just finished loading the sensors on board my personal ship. With that done, we launched off into space once more. It doesn't take long to get to Wei, a single jump, and it takes even less time to setup the sensors, which provide the data as promised.

"Alright, I'm getting readings on all our ships...wait, I've got something," said Bandit as I re-enter the bridge. At her station, she slowly zooms in on an odd signature, a heat source where there shouldn't be one.

"Glitch, or possibly an intruder? Could be dangerous either way, that valley is really steep, with sheer winds at a high speed. We could be blown down into it if we investigate," she advises.

"I think it's worth the risk myself. If it is a glitch, we need to know it gives false positives. If it's not...," I leave the statement hanging as I fly the Shield Beetle to the coordinates. As Bandit had advised, the place was a whirling maelstrom, with snow filled gales causing it to look like night, despite the sun visible through the gloom. Still, I hold us up long enough to spot a ship in the middle of the valley. A Republic transport.

"Disabled, deserting, or doing their duty?" I asked, looked at them, and after a moment, it became clear it was the last, as they hauled what looked like a massive version of the sensor I'd been planting out of their ship, two shapes gathering around it.

"Hmm, a relay. Probably got a whole web of sensors over the planet," I comment. While the Free Worlds would be sending scouts into the system regularly, and getting data from the sensors, the Navy didn't have that luxury, hence the large device designed to transmit it to a nearby system.

"I believe we've been spotted," said STAR, and zoomed in on the pair, pointing up, and then rushing back towards their ship. Idly, I train my sunbeams on their relay, blasting it to atoms with a shot, and then firing a sustained blast in front of the pair, telling them pointedly that they can't escape. The two, showing intelligence that was rare sometimes, actually raise their hands and put them over their heads in surrender.

"Gunships like theirs typically only have two man crews. If you'd like, I could snipe them, and we could claim their ship as ours. Or we could just blow them all away right now," offers Bandit, causing a targeting reticule to appear over the men. I think about it for a moment, before waving dismissively.

"Their relay's destroyed. They're stuck coming in system to get their data just like the Free Worlds. No reason they have to die now," I tell her, opening up a channel, and soon finding a comm frequency for the suits they're wearing to shield themselves from the atmosphere.

"I'm feeling benevolent, gentlemen, so I'll give you this one chance to run. Get back in your ship, and leave this system. Don't think about trying anything, I have a fleet in orbit ready for anything," I advise them, and get a few clicks of confirmation, rather than voices. They wanted to keep their identities secret, and that was fine with me, as they get back in, and we escort the gunship to orbit, watching as it flits between two of my ships, and then shoots off back towards Republic space. Once that's done, we return to Longjump, where I find Freya and Tomek in the same office, as if they hadn't ever left.

"Sensors installed. Navy's got their own set, by the way. I didn't bother looking for them in that lovely Hope weather, but I did stop them from installing a relay. Without that, they'll have to send scouts into the system to get their data, just like us," I tell the two, and they nod. We discuss the implications of the two sensor webs, but otherwise, move on. Eventually, I'm given my next assignment. The planet Rust, in the Kraz system, is home to Kraz Cybernetics. Apparently I've been volunteered to test a new weapon system they'd developed.

"We wouldn't normally send a mercenary captain on a mission like this, but you've proven trustworthy, and what's more, your ships are powerful enough to make a good data sample," explained Freya, before giving me a few passwords, to identify myself. After that, I depart, with a promise of, when we have a few days peace, allowing Freya aboard my ships. Still, for now we launch, setting course straight for Kraz, where my ship lands. Once on the ground, I'm escorted by a young engineer to a nearby hangar, where I find 'Barmy Edward' the one who designed the weapon system I'm going to be testing.

"Pleased to meet you," he says, pulling a cigarette out of his mouth, and tossing it perfectly into a nearby tray, before offering me a grease covered hand. Taking it, with only a slight hesitation, I shake it.

"And to you. I hear you've got a new weapon for me to test," I say, and he smiles at me, before kicking a nearby table, spilling some things off it, but uncovering the specs for a turret that had been hidden underneath.

"I do indeed. She's my finest work. Most powerful anyway. Wanted something better than the heavy lasers the Navy uses in most of their ships, so I designed the biggest weapon I could, slapped a pair of them in a turret, and then set that on a test ship. The gun's sixty tons of raw power, draws energy like...well, like a gas guzzler, and she runs a bit hot. Still, she's more than up to the task to which I'm putting her," as he speaks, he gets up, and then takes me towards a window. Outside it, I see a Falcon sitting in a berth, four of the huge turrets easily visible on it.

"Now, I wanted to test these things out in live combat, but the Council says no go. We won't provoke the Navy just to see how good our new guns are. Still, testing under combat conditions is a must, so I gut a target for you, it's why we need a fleet. You're going to get my ship to the system I'm giving you, where we know the pirate ship, Red Nile, is hanging around. Go there, blow the crud out of them, and come back. Sounds easy, right?" he says, offering me the data disk. After looking at it, then at him, I shrug, and pocket the thing.

"So, what's the name of the ship?" I ask, pointing a thumb at the Falcon.

"Walloping Window-Blind. Won the office vote in a two to one race," he said, proudly. Probably his suggestion.

"And what type of ship is the Red Nile?" I ask, and he just shrugs at me.

"Eh, it's one of those old clunkers out of Betelgeuse. More hull patches than hull, from what I hear. My baby shouldn't have any trouble with it. Only reason they insisted on an escort was something might go wrong, and we don't want the pirates getting their hands on our new toy," he explains, before returning to his work. Knowing a dismissal when I see one, I walk out, giving the disk to a STAR android as I walk back on, and then assisting the Window-Blind into orbit, before bringing it in formation with my fleet, and starting towards the Ildaria system, where the Red Nile was supposedly hiding.


	45. Mercy

As it turned out, the Red Nile was a heavily armored, if not heavily armed, Leviathan. Lots of hull, and probably a few dozen crew, but little in the way of engines or weapons. Heck, watching it, I could see the thing was listing, probably trapped in system, and for a moment, I was wondering if it was some kind of ploy. Before I could act on that idea, the Window-Blind arrived, and sent out a message demanding the Red Nile surrender, unconditionally, to them, which got the typical pirate response of a pot shot at them.

That set off the Window-Blind, and the two were off, with my fleet standing by to assist, but otherwise staying out of the action. I got to witness what happens when a man with a broken arm fights a man with a broken leg, as the two ships faced off. The Falcon had the edge in firepower, the new turrets shooting out bolts that my scanners said were quite a bit stronger than even heavy lasers. However, the shots themselves were draining whatever core the Window-Blind had installed, causing it to almost come to a halt every time it fired.

The Red Nile couldn't compete in terms of firepower, with what appeared to be one beam turret operational on the thing. What it could compete in was maneuverability, however, as, despite seemingly listing, the ship proved surprisingly agile. It juked, spun, dipped, and even twirled a time or two. Better, at least for the Nile, whatever targeting computer the Window-Blind was using was either malfunctioning, or just not adjusted properly for the new weapon, as shots often went wide, a full barrage of eight bolts only getting one or two to even clip the enemy, and even then they had to be extremely close to get those results.

Finally, after almost an hour of dancing, the Red Nile turned left, when it should have pulled up, and one of the barrages caught it mid ship, causing the shields to fail completely, and slamming into the hull til the thing was floating dead in space. Of course, the Window-Blind only got that in because it strained itself, the heat sink on the hull turning into vapor, and leaving a smoke hole where it should have been, while sparks and lights played over the hull. The result was both ships looked like they'd lost the fight.

I was surprised, then, as the Walloping Window-Blind pulled up, and stopped, and I saw the telltale signs of the weapon system charging up. Quick to react, I opened up a channel, getting a busy signal at first, before a window popped up in front of me. What I saw was a mess. The captain, probably another engineer, was shouting into a speaker, while behind him, several people were putting out fires with hand extinguishers, as the built in ones on the bridge seemed to have run out of fluid.

"What is it?" demanded the captain, coughing a little as some of the gas was getting to him.

"The Red Nile is disabled, Captain. Stand down, I'll have one of my ships dock and take them prisoner," I said simply, and the man waved his hand dismissively. Or was possibly trying to clear the air in front of him.

"Negative. My orders are to destroy that ship. Edwards wants a full range test of his new guns, and I'm not going to let him down," he said, and turned to give the order. I wanted to yell at him to stop, hopefully saving the lives of all those people on the other ship. Luckily, it didn't come to that, as the moment he gave the order, another console blew out on his bridge, filling the air with more smoke, and I could hear a voice talking about heat ratios and other stats, which told me they weren't going to be able to fire any time soon.

"Well...perhaps you can," he said, closing the channel. Within ten minutes, I had the Red Nile crew offloaded onto one of my ships, with the crews assurance that they were not going to be a problem, especially after one of the young girls in the crew knocked her captain out with a hammer, telling us to drop them off wherever we could. With that done, we made our way back to Rust, landing and dropping off the former pirate crew with some referrals for jobs in the factories, while the captain was handed over to the militia, before I made my way back to Barmy Edwards.

"I've got some data back, but it's all the dry, technical stuff. I want your opinion, as a mercenary, how did my guns hold up?" he asked excitedly the moment I walked into the hanger, leaping down, still tangled up in the wires. He smiled at me, and for a moment, I wanted to smack him. I knew the type of person he was. He wanted information, to play with his toys. It wasn't that he wanted others to die for his test, it was just that, he was naive, and didn't consider those losses as anything other than fact.

"They run too hot and are a bit too heavy for the Falcon, and whatever core you had in it. More, they're going to need better targeting computers. The ones you were using in this test couldn't hit a stationary target at more than a light second," I said with a sigh, one that Edwards didn't even seem to hear, as he wrote everything down with a giddy laugh. He said, offhandedly, that the Window-Blind was a test ship, and the hulls that Freya was building would be able to hold a few of his guns. He then told me to report to the port authority for my next assignment.

There, I was told I would be escorting some Star Barges, ten of the single person transports. I offered the woman giving me the assignment some of my hold space for the delivery, as a single one of my Shield Beetles could cover most if not all of whatever they were transporting. She corrected my assumption though. Piracy was down, I wasn't going as protection, not really. I was going to make sure none of the new pilots got lost, so they could learn the route from Rust to Longjump, where another assignment was waiting for me.

Just as she said, the trip was easy. Not a single pirate attacked, or was even spotted, and for that, I was grateful, as I watched the transports move into the own berths, before maneuvering my ship into the one waiting for me. After that, I was told to head to Tomek's office. There, I found the man himself, a tumbler of whiskey, and maps strewn about the place. Mostly the maps were marked with lines, showing current force dispositions of the Free Worlds and Republic, as well as a few just showing what territory is where.

"Ah, hello Sage. It's good to see you. Did Barmy Edwards weapon live up to expectations?" he asked. I gave him my honest assessment, including the fact that the turrets were kind of dangerous to mount on anything without modern equipment to back them up. He dismissed the concern, point out that Freya had been designing a new hull just for the things, before bringing my attention to the map he'd had on his desk, with several nearby worlds circled on it.

"Alright, we have new swords, just in case the Navy wants to challenge us, so it's time to focus closer to home. Thanks to someone eliminating the Rat Pack and Moonless Night, we've eliminated the local Clans, and that gives us an opening," I chose not to inform him that that person was me, and allowed him to continue.

"We've got the local pirates scared. They won't operate in the center of our territory, but they'll still do raids on the fringe. That's where you come in," as he spoke, he pointed a finger at four systems in particular.

"For now, we just need information. Defenses, fleets, and the like. Your force is big enough that you can scare them off if they try to stop you, and your jump drives mean you can move around faster than any other fleet in the Free Worlds. Go to these systems, get some good scans, and when you come back, we'll draw up plans," he ordered. Before he could say more, a buzzer called his attention, and he got on a call with some Free Worlds militia forces, which I took as my cue to leave.

I saw no reason to delay, and set out to the four systems, which, as expected, had defenders. Unexpectedly, there was a significant force at each location, enough that even I was given pause. The reason was obvious, when one thought about it. No more raids meant more captains kept close to home, and while they weren't an organized force, a mob of small ships was still a threat. Some worlds even had the ground based launchers, which I made note of, learning where the sites on planet were, before leaping out. A week later, we were back in Longjump with the intel.

Upon landing, I found news stories circulating about the formation of a new Navy Fleet, one made up of the officers and men we'd returned to the Republic after the actions in the Kornephoros system. They called themselves the Oathkeepers, and would be doing defense and patrol duty to the Galactic North of the Republic, as far away as possible from the Free Worlds. Under the leadership of Admiral Danforth, they'd already rooted out a pirate base in one of the nearby systems, and were building quite the reputation.

That should have been a good thing, but it might mean trouble for the Free Worlds. The Navy had turned what had been a crushing defeat, into a real political coup. They now had extra forces out on the fringe, doing the good work, and pushing back the pirate threat, which was obviously freeing up other forces to send against us. Oddly, I found many a civilian speaking of how 'noble' and 'gallant' the Navy was on the way to Tomek's office. Not surprising, but still, it would make any action against them all the harder to justify.

At Tomek's office itself, I was surprised to find the man in absentee, as he'd been called away. A message had been left with an aid, and I was informed that the Free Worlds Senate, the larger governing body that would replace the Council, was to meet for the first time on Bourne. Tomek had left as soon as he'd heard, and asked me to come as well. On my way, he requested I give transport to one Senator Arianna Huygen whose planet of Mere had had some election trouble, to the Capital as well.

Stopping at Mere on my way proved easy enough. The Senator herself, however, was as unpleasant as any political big wig. She carried herself with an air of importance, and seemed rather upset at the delay in transport, as her complaints were literally the first thing I heard out of her as STAR's androids moved her, and several large suitcases to the largest quarters on the ship. She insists on me leading her there, as she doesn't seem to trust the robots, and upon entering her room, she heaves a sigh.

"Well finally. I was beginning to think the Council was going to declare the democracy over, and they'd become oligarchs over us all," she said, pointedly, so I couldn't help but hear.

"You have an issue with them, I take it?" I asked, taking the bait, just to see where she was going with this.

"Surely you've noticed? Every decision that has had any true weight behind it has come from the Council. Resource allocation, trade deals, even the hiring of mercenaries," she says the last while staring at you.

"Well, that's because it was chaotic. When push comes to shove, sometimes you need people with the authority to get things done. Now that the immediate threats are not so immediate, the Senate can take the time needed to come to their decisions," I informed her, and that actually seemed to annoy the woman, who hrumphed at me.

"I see. I had you pegged as another political like myself, but now I see you're just a base sort of man. Tell me, Captain, do you know what makes piloting a ship, similar to politics?" she asked, in a very derisive manner that told me none of my answers would be acceptable.

"No, but I can tell you this Admiral before you controls the pressure in each cabin on the ship, and in the event of an emergency, the crew deck is going to be spaced," I told her, before slamming the door in her face. It felt good doing that, and I didn't hear another peep out of her as we made our way to Bourne. Once there, she's quick to get off my ship, and I can hear her complaining about how long it took, which I almost feel like telling her we made record time, at least until Ijs Springborn approaches, waving me over to him.

"Mr. Sage, it's so good to see you again," he says, taking my hand and shaking it.

"And to you, Eyes. What are you doing here, though? I figured politics wasn't exactly your cup of tea," I tell him, and he nods.

"Oh, I wish I could avoid it, but such things are simply the price one pays to make the dreams of others come true. I'm sure you know Katya has gone missing," he tells you as he leads you over to a cafe, where he is obviously known, as with a gesture he's given a cup, while I order a simple coffee.

"She's not missing, she's in custody. We'll get her out as soon as possible," I tell him, and he nods again.

"Ah, so you know more than I on that front then. Good to know we know where she is, even if she's not free yet. Still, I hope I can give her a gift when she returns," he says this while passing me a sheet of paper. On it is a very dry looking report, mostly about allocations of resources, like what the Senator had been talking about. In specific, this was a request to divert resources from the Free Worlds to the establishment of a place called the Conservatory, where they would study new Terraforming techniques, to be used on any world that requested it.

"I see," I tell him, remembering some of what Katya had talked about. After a few more minutes chatting, Ijs phone beeps, and he quickly excuses himself, rushing off to see a senator and get their approval on his proposal. He shouts after me that he'll be in the spaceport later, and might need a ride, if I was willing. Sipping my coffee as I watch him go, I see another familiar face in the crowd, and rise, waving my hand at Tomek, and getting him to take the empty seat.

"Sorry about the rush, but the Senate only decided to meet the day after you left, and I couldn't get word to you in time," he apologized, and I wave it off.

"That's fine. I did get your data, by the way," I tell him.

"Yes, the office actually got that sent off the moment you uploaded it. The Senate's been going over the intel all morning in a closed session. Ms. Nuygen is the last to arrive, though I doubt her vote will mean much," he answers.

"They've already come to a decision?" I ask, and he quickly shakes his head.

"They're politicians. Get two of them in a room with a yes or no question, and by the end of the day you'll have a dozen answers. Still, they're open to the suggestions of the Council. I've thrown my vote in with a shock and awe approach. The worlds are heavily defended, but not so heavy that we can't take them out with ease. Greenrock is the one I want to hit most. Take it out hard and fast enough, and the other three would surrender without a fight. What do you think?" he responds, and I take a moment to consider it, trying to recall all the data I can, only to be brought up short when remembering two scared kids coming to me, with a newborn daughter in their arms.

"I think that would cause a lot of casualties on both sides. We'd lose people taking them out, and most of the crew of those ships are conscripts, not soldiers. We show them they can make a life without the pirate stuff, and they'll probably throw their captains out the airlocks themselves," I tell him, and that seems to bring him up short, with an almost angry glint in his eye. It passes quickly though.

"I see. Well, that's for the Senate to decide. I'll pass your recommendation along, however, as you were the one doing the patrolling. For now, we need to fly the flag, and that means big ships in several systems. Considering the size of your force, I think it would do for that. How would you feel about parade duty?" he offers, and I quickly accept, letting him return to the Senate, while I launch once more.


	46. Fire Fighting

Ijs met me at the port as I made my way back to my ship, along with two familiar faces. The Andersons, Lynn and Henry, along with a few cases of equipment. The three of them are smiling and laughing, which probably means Ijs' meeting went well. It in fact, did, as Ijs told me that a world on the edge of the Free Worlds, Winter, had offered up an old community center for the purpose of the Conservatory they were planning. Henry was quick to add that said center was mostly old and rundown, with a lot of repairs needed.

"Still, it's better than I was expecting. With even a basic structure already in place, we could get this plan up and running in a few months, if not weeks," Lynn was quick to add as STAR's droids loaded her equipment into the hold, and I escorted the three inside. Once at the bridge, they all started, as Joe and Bandit were sitting in their chairs. It was then that I remembered I'd never introduced the three to my more cosmopolitan crew. Thus, introductions were given all around, with Henry actually engaging the two in deep conversation, mostly about their species and governments.

"Still playing the spy, dear?" asked Lynn with a chuckle, and I actually caught Henry blushing out of the corner of my eye, which made me smirk despite myself as we blasted off. The trip to Winter was easy enough, and as we entered the system, I announced our presence, loudly. A few ships without markings, and one pirate with them, quickly high tailed it, as a huge fleet of warships declared their intent to clean up the system, and we landed easily on Winter, Lynn's equipment being picked up by a few young looking people, probably students.

"Okay, Tarazed says they've already got some of our more specialized equipment built. Stuff that would make the research go a lot easier. However, they're refusing to transport it to Winter, with the war and all. The Free Worlds isn't offering to help us more than just giving us the building. Do you suppose you might be up for a nice easy, cargo haul?" asked Ijs as everyone started to filter out. I agreed, warning him I was going to fly the flag on the way, so it might be a while, and he simply waved it off, saying it wasn't a real time sensitive issue.

So we left Winter, and launched into space. There, we visited the various systems Tomek asked us to. In each we would find a few pirates, some small fighters and the like, which tended to run the moment they picked up my fleet of massive warships. Only once did we have to engage in battle, this against a small force that either overestimated their strength, or thought we were just bluffing. We quickly proved them wrong, leaving their floating hulks to be taken by militia as we jumped again, finally arriving at the Tarazed system.

Wayfarer, the world that housed the corporation, allowed us to land, and I met the old woman there again. She remembered me rather clearly, and quickly had her men load the equipment onto my ship, and included a note to give to Ijs when we returned to Winter. I asked what was in it, and she said mostly just some reports he'd asked for, as well as a personal letter, asking him to hurry his research. She, despite her position, wanted to help people, and the terraforming project Ijs and the Andersons was just the way to do that.

We launched, and finished our flying of the flag, including revisiting some of the systems we'd passed through before, surprising those who'd hoped that the sight of my fleet was a one time deal. Instead, many were forced to flee, especially as I got a bit more aggressive, actively taking them down as we made our way back to Winter, where I landed and found Ijs waiting for me. He took the equipment, making me sign a form or two, and then asked me to keep a comm open. While they needed nothing now, I was probably the only one willing to work with them, and help would be appreciated if it came down to it.

Just as we were about to hit space again, Barmy Edwards called up, saying his new turrets were being mass produced now, and if I had an urge, I could purchase one. Of course, he had an ulterior motive for contacting me, as apparently he had another new weapon to test, one no one was willing to help with. Considering my options for a moment, I decided to risk it, as his first weapon was at least interesting, and the Free Worlds could use all the help it could get. Setting course, I took my fleet to Rust.

The moment we entered the system, alarms blared, as a group of small ships, identified as the Doom Bat swarm by their comms, flew at us. A hundred tiny, single person ships, all registered as Free Worlds, and diving into the midst of our fleet. Before we could do anything, they flamed out, large gouts of fire coming from their ports, and for a moment, I thought they were self destructing or the like, until I realized the flames were self sustained, and were slamming hard into the hulls of my ships.

"Return fire! Disable only! I want to know just what the hell is going on!" I demanded, and STAR acknowledged, every ship forming up, and soon a battle of fire and sunbeams took place. The flame, luckily, were very minor in damage, but I could actually see the heat gauges going up, even as the air inside my ship grew more like a sauna. Luckily, we outnumbered the small craft, and after a few moments, they were drifting, while my captains all map atmospheric dives to shed heat.

"I have a transmission coming in from the planet. It's Mr. Edwards," said Joe from her station, her breath coming in ragged gasps, as her fur provided a bit too much insulation, keeping all the heat in, and causing her to sweat. Beside her, Bandit was also sweating, and I could feel my own back soaked in the stuff beneath my shirt. Motioning with a hand, I had her bring up an image of the man in front of me.

"Ah, I see you encountered my new weapon. Was it everything I hoped for?" he asked in a pleasant tone, and for a moment, I was tempted to ask Bandit to fire on his position, but then I just leaned back in my seat and sighed.

"It's effective, I'll give it that. It overloaded our environmental systems, and was starting to tax the heat sinks. I'm guessing that's what it's supposed to do?" I asked, and the man nodded excitedly.

"Oh yes. I figure, most pirates don't have more than basic heat sinks on their ships. They want quick, fast strikes, not protracted battles. Still, I might want to turn down the heat a bit, if it was able to do that to you," he says, and before I can tell him off for attacking allies, he cuts the line. Looking over at the other two, I can see the offer in their eyes. An accident from orbit could hardly be blamed on us after his little stunt, but I wave them off, especially as the air finally starts to cool off, and we just leave the system.

Arriving back on Longjump, I'm surprised to see how many ships have gathered. I knew the Free Worlds would have fleets at least somewhat comparable to the Navy, but this is just a massive show of force, many times the size of my own in both number and mass. It's not quite as well coordinated, however, as the ships are moving, and more than once I see them get a bit too close to each other. Still, I maneuver my own forces through it, and land on the planet, making my way to the spaceport office where Tomek, Freya, and a new face, await me.

"Jean-Jacques Soleau," he introduces himself, the fifth and final member of the Council. Where Tomek was military, Freya was engineering, Alondo was diplomacy, and Katya was...Katya, Jean-Jacques, or JJ as he preferred, was actual governance. He was the link between the Council and the Senate, and mostly dealt with the typical bureaucracy that tended to crop up when governments got large enough.

"Well, Sage, you're going to be happy to know that the Senate agreed to your idea. After flying the flag and chasing most of them into their own systems, we're going to try negotiating with the Pirate Worlds, rather than doing anything more violent," said Tomek, as he gestured towards JJ, who nodded, and pulled out a map, with the Men system circled.

"Alright, the plan is simple. We've already got Alondo doing his thing with the leaders on Thule, and they've agreed to meet with us to discuss terms. Most of them don't care for the pirate clans anymore than we do, and I bet if we offer to 'deal' with the more unruly ones, we'll be able to get them to agree to at least cease giving any support to such activity," he explained, Freya, beside him, pointed towards the Smuggler's Den in the system, the place I remembered quite well as where I'd met that young couple.

"Yes, we hope to get them to understand that we don't want to dominate them. They'll be allowed to continue to govern themselves. But, we must make sure they understand. If their system continues to be a base of operations for such people, we'll have no choice but to treat them as valid military targets, no matter how many innocents get caught in the crossfire," she said the last in a harsh tone, and I took a moment to consider it. We then fell into discussion of various routes, and even some overall disposition of forces. Later, after JJ and Freya leave, Tomek takes me aside.

"I know you have the same idea as the Senate, heck it was your idea, but I've got to ask. Are you sure this will work? They're pirate worlds. Those people can say they'll stop supporting them all they want, but that's never been enough before. We could roll in, and just take them out. Your fleet, my men, one operation," he says, pointing his finger towards the Antares system, where reports were a large pirate fleet had gathered after my fleet had chased them out of Free Worlds controlled space.

"Positive? Not really, but I met some of these people. They're not bad, they're just scared. They don't like big governments, and the pirate clans take advantage of that to dominate them. If we make it clear, however, that their choices are to refuse the pirates, or have us lording over them, I'm pretty sure they'll fight back against the clans, and without a source of crew, those fools will find themselves trying to fly their ships all on their own," I said, and Tomek raised an eyebrow, aware that my own ships did just that.

"Without the help of androids they couldn't afford, if they even worked," I added, as the NDR models had been taken off the market a few months after I'd bought mine, something about security flaws in their programing. Most captains needed a flesh and blood crew now. I could get away with having them only because of STAR and the cores I'd stolen from the Korath-Ah, which not only upgraded the things, but allowed me to make more.

"I see. Well, I'll consider your words, carefully," he added the last, and then made a motion with his hand. Knowing I was dismissed, I quickly made my way back to the port, and launched once more in the heavens.


	47. Aggressive Negotiations

Arriving on Thule, I was greeted by Alondo, who smiled at me as I walked off the ramp of my ship, while in the sky, several more hulls could be seen. Around him were what I would have taken for primitive tribes of Earth, mostly old men, wearing what looked like fur cloaks and the like to keep out the cold of the snow. Of course, unlike those peoples, these wore various garments beneath the fur, mostly thermal layers that kept them warm, and even a few glints of metal from communicators and the like.

"Sage, I have the honor of introducing the Elders, the leaders of the various settlements on Thule," Alondo then proceeded to rattle off names of the old men, but I quite honestly, couldn't be asked to remember them. I did shake hands, and nod at each one, but I doubted I'd remember what any of them looked like beyond a few minutes after I left. They were at least a diverse group, from many racial and ethnic backgrounds, though I noticed that not a single woman stood with them. Still, I let that bit of information go as I followed them towards a nice modern looking building, Alondo coming up beside me.

"These people represent the largest groups on the planet. If we can get them to agree to our terms, everyone else will pretty much be forced to by sheer weight of the others," he explained, and I nodded at the statement.

"Are you sure this will work then? I mean, they don't exactly look like the most diplomatic bunch," I questioned, as the old guys in front of us spoke to each other in hushed voices as well. Before a response can be had, we can hear thunder in the distance, and for a moment, I wonder if I should go grab an umbrella, only to be shown that no protection of that sort would be enough, as a shot, probably from a laser cannon, strikes a nearby mountain. Diving down with Alondo, I reach for my comm and quickly get my fleet on the line.

"What is going on up there?!" I demand, as more blasts streak over the sky, some missiles as well. None of them seem well aimed, as they all fall far wide of the facility and my own parked ship.

"We have company, a lot of it. A whole pirate fleet in fact. Apparently they're not too happy that the people of Thule agreed to meet with us. It's a group of Leviathans with escorts. We're dealing with them, but they're taking pot shots at the planet every chance they get," says STAR, and I find myself looking up to find the Elders already waving us over towards them, and then we all went into a nearby cave, to wait out the storm.

It took only a few minutes, a half hour at most, and by the end of the attack, the Elders were impressed, as their own people had identified at least a dozen clans in on the assault, a full Wolf Pack according to them. With that many big wigs gone, the planet was now free to take us up on our offer. If we'd keep the pirates away as much as possible, they'd refuse to give such people any sort of assistance. That deal in hand, Alondo and I returned to my ship, trying to ignore all the craters and burned out buildings in the port, as well as bodies covered by sheets, as we went aboard.

"So, they basically want all the protection of being a Free Worlds member, but no taxes or anything?" I say at last as we go to the bridge, and Alondo is quick to shake his head.

"The pirates are a threat to everyone, they want them dealt with, that's all. They'll still be dealing with trade on their own, and I'm almost positive they'll come around to us eventually, especially after we start fixing up this system," he says the last while presenting me a deed, one signed in full by the Elders, that gave the Free Worlds all operation rights to Grendle Station, now known as Smuggler's Den. It was beyond the resources of Thule to operate the facility, and it would soon become a nice fuel refinery for the Free Worlds.

"Still, that's in the future. For now, let's head back to Longjump, see what else we can get done before something else goes wrong," he says, actually smiling cheerily. I just grunt, and set course, jumping us back to the Free Worlds central port. There, we should have been greeted by the sight of ships going in and out of the world's atmosphere. Instead, as we jumped in, one could see ships limping along, most trailing smoke, some with obvious holes in their hulls, and all in various stages of repair.

"What in the world happened?" asked Alondo as we come in for a landing at an empty berth. There, Freya and JJ are already waiting, the latter constantly shooting off reports and the like on a personal assistant, while the former is looking over damage reports, sometimes sending messages about what to scrap, what to repair, and what to salvage for parts.

"I really hope you two have good news for us, because we have a lot of bad news for you," said Freya as she came aboard, both of them setting their communicators aside for a moment, and then turning to us.

"Well, we have the word of the Elders of Thule that they won't be harboring pirates anymore. And we have the rights to Grendle Station, already cleaned out because of a battle we had over Thule," explains Alondo, as some of the droids get cups of coffee for us. The pair thank the robots, and then drain their cups in long pulls, before asking for refills.

"That's good to hear. We could really use that as a base of operations in that sector of space, especially with what Tomek did," she said, and then brought up a report on her device to show us.

"Just after Admiral Sage departed Longjump, Tomek took the fleets here, and struck out at Greenrock. The idiot apparently thought the Senate's idea of negotiating with the independent worlds to get them to disavow the pirates was too weak. He intended on just taking the system wholesale, and force the issue," she explained, her display showing the flight path, and then the scan of enemy ships at Greenrock as they arrived.

"I take it, the battle went poorly?" I asked, and Freya barked a laugh, bringing the report forward a bit to show losses. Namely that two in three Free Worlds ships were now in an almost irreparable stated, while only one in five of the pirates were in the same.

"They knew the system better, had advanced warning of the fleet coming in, and most importantly, were fighting a defensive battle. Tomek's fleet hit mines, got shot at from the planet's surface, and a dozen other things. He showed himself to be a good battlefield commander for all that. As the enemy outnumbered him almost two to one, but still, he's been demoted off the Council, and is under house arrest, awaiting whatever punishment we deem fit for his actions," Freya explained, and we both looked at each other, Alondo finally taking in a breath, and then letting it out in one long sigh.

"Why would he do this? I mean, he didn't seem happy with the Senate's decision, but to go rogue like this…" I say, letting it trail off. The others are quiet for a long moment afterwards, before JJ finally speaks up.

"Tomek is a genius. Big picture, he's always been the best military mind we had. He felt the Senate should listen to him, and take his advice as gospel. The fact that you were off to negotiate with pirates rubbed him the wrong way, and he wanted to prove his way would work. Obviously, he proved the opposite, but one can't deny his valor, especially since he did return to Longjump, rather than flee the consequences of his decision," explains the politician, and we all nod after a moment of thought.

"Where does that leave us?" asked Alondo finally, and Freya spoke now.

"Slightly worse position than before, but if you really got Thule on our side, we can probably spin this as an independent action on Tomek's part. Using that, we can hopefully get the other independent worlds to kick the pirates off. If you're still willing to help us, Sage," she said the last, and all three of them turned to me. For my part, I just shrugged.

"I'm not part of your cause, you know that, but I'm here, and I'm willing to do what I can to assist you. You all should know what I want, as I'm almost positive Katya would have reported on it," I told them.

"You want some people dead," said JJ bluntly.

"Indeed. If you assist me with that, I'm for the Free Worlds all the way," I responded just the same, giving each of them a moment of pause.

"We, as leaders of a government, can't really condone the murder of non-aligned civilians without trial, something I doubt you'd want, as you probably have no proof of crimes," JJ said the last while looking at me, and I shook my head.

"Then we have an issue. Still, if what your report said is true, we can probably go the pirate route. We won't help you take them out, but we'll help you find them. What happens after that, is none of our business," he said, and we got on to other plans. Namely that I would go to Syndicate space, pick up some very specific parts, and return to the Men system. Smuggler's Den was inoperable at the moment, but with a few repairs, Freya was certain her teams could have it working again, providing not only a deuterium refinery, but also work for the people of Thule.

The trip itself is uneventful, with only a single run in with a Navy patrol, that quickly thinks better of engaging a fleet almost a hundred times its size. I'm still upset that I'm being charged almost twenty times what the parts are actually worth, but it's not enough to really dent in my finances, and the trip to Men is even less eventful, landing on Smuggler's Den with the parts, which Freya's people offload. I shoot off a message that I'm done, but they send back a reply that basically boils down to 'go amuse yourself for a while', leaving me to my own devices as they deal with the fallout of Tomek's little stunt. Free, for the first time in months, I decide to just explore a bit, and visit some spaceport bars looking for work to pass the time.


	48. Building Bridges

I didn't find any jobs in the local bars, and soon found myself just outside the Shaula system, where Greenrock is. Independent as I am, and with a fleet more coordinated than that of the Free Worlds, I decide to throw caution to the winds, and jump in. There, I'm almost immediately locked onto by dozens of weapons, as the fleet Tomek encountered is still making its home in the system. I've surprised them, however, popping up in odd places with my jump drives, giving them little warning, and worse yet, giving them no time to launch their fleet.

What passes for a battle is over in minutes, as the ships on the ground are targeted by sunbeams just as they cross city safe zones, typically crashing in the midst of wilderness, or splashing down into oceans. Those in space find the more ordered attacks of my fleet harder to deal with, especially as the sunbeams are continuous weapons, not impact, allowing us to quickly switch between targets, taking out smaller ships first, and working our way up to the largest ones.

When we finally leave, the system is a junkyard, while most of the hulls unable to even get a joule of power out of their reactors. Heck, most will never fly again, thanks to the way we got them. Despite that, not a single one was destroyed, only disabled, and I watched as escape pods and shuttles ejected from the hulks, all going to the planet below. I also heard threats, insults, and other such on the comms, as the pirate captains declared they would get me for this, before I decided to leave.

Once out of system, I was quickly in range of a message from the Council, which told me to meet Alondo on Longjump, where a new mission would await me. With a smile in my heart, I made my way there, finding the field of ships to be mostly cleared away by now, only a few of the largest hulls still floating dead, as smaller ships scavenged them for parts. I ignored most of that while making my way down to the planet, Alondo coming aboard as quickly as he could, before looking at me with a disappointing gaze.

"I have good news, but I also want to know just what in the hell you were thinking? Tomek's still under house arrest for what he pulled, and you go and repeat his stunt. Why?" he demands, and I smile at him.

"His stunt was a bad idea because he went in prepared for a ground war, and was equipped as such. He wanted to hold that world, and that's why his invasion failed. I just wanted to make sure those pirates still in the system were not a threat, and thanks to him, it worked. They never saw me coming, and we've now got even more leverage against the system when we come in saying we can protect them against the pirates," I respond, and he looks almost ready to shout at me, before falling into a chair and rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Fine, I can understand your reasoning, and it might actually work out for us. Still, don't do that again, at least not without checking with us first. We need to keep ourselves on the same gameplan, or everything can go south quick," he tells me.

"Alright, I'll at least shoot you a message, but I'm still independent as far as operations go. You don't have veto power over me," I responded, and he seemed to accept that.

"Good, good. Better news than your victory, however comes in the form of three new worlds willing to join us. New Portland, Dancer, and New India are all on the fringe of our space, and apparently think we'll give them a better deal than the Republic at this point," he told me, pulling out a sheet, and showing me the systems he was talking about.

"Hmm, why hasn't this been announced yet? The Senate should see this as a real coup, shouldn't it? I mean, systems are choosing the Free Worlds over the Republic," I ask, concerned about the implications.

"That's the rub. We were hoping to shift the systems to our side quickly and quietly, but Tomek's little stunt damaged or destroyed a large section of our fleet. Worse, the Navy apparently got word of the plan, and now have huge fleets patrolling the three systems, meaning a bloody battle could be in store when we move in, even if we're invited," he explained.

"No way to avoid a fight then?" I ask, and he goes all thoughtful for the moment, stroking his chin and everything, before pointing towards Earth on the map.

"There might be. I've used a few contacts to get safe passage for your fleet through Republic space, which is only possible because of their unique hulls. If you can take me to Earth, I can try to make a plea to Parliament in person. Maybe they'll listen then. If not, we can at least say we tried," he said bluntly, and I had to consider that for a moment. It could, after all, be a trap. My fleet was known to be the largest single force in the Free Worlds, and this would be a perfect opportunity to take out some of my ships, or maybe myself personally. Still, it might help avoid a battle, and I had to admit, that was worth a gamble.

"Okay, get to a bunk, I'm sure you can pick out a favorite. We'll leave in an hour," I tell him, and then make preparations for the journey. We launch out, and then jump through Republic space. Everywhere, the Navy gathers at worlds, weapons hot and ready, but at no point do they even lock onto us, giving us free passage through to Earth itself, where we're given a berth, and as soon as my ship docks, an escort of military uniforms comes up to take Alondo to the Parliament floor.

What follows is hours of waiting, as the closed session isn't broadcast at all, and several times I consider ordering violence, just in case he's been captured, or if it would possibly lead us to Katya. Each time I hold off, however, as I know taking that sort of action would only be a setback in the long run. My waiting game finally ends when Alondo is brought back, his face a twisted thing of both rage and sadness as he stomps on board, and demands a drink, simple milk, to calm his nerves, before finally talking to me.

"It doesn't make any sense. Those worlds barely pay taxes, as far away as they are. Just stationing those ships to defend them has got to be costing more than they'd pay back in years. They should be glad to see them go," he says after a while, and I shrug.

"Maybe their afraid of a domino effect. One system leaves, and others are going to want their freedom from the Parliament as well," I suggest, and he nods at me.

"Possibly. Amazing how callous those idiots can be with the lives of loyal Navy officers and personnel. It makes me sick," he says at last.

"No argument here. Shall we return to Longjump then?" I ask, and he shakes his head, while swallowing the last of his drink.

"Not yet. I refuse to believe this is the will of those who will be fighting. I have one more card to play. New Wales has the largest base in this sector, and houses the ones in charge of military affairs. Maybe they'll see reason, and prevent the politicians from throwing the lives of their men away on pointless gestures," he suggests, and I agree, taking us there with a few jumps. Sadly, we aren't allowed to land on the planet this time, instead, waiting in orbit as they arrange a direct connection. This is a show of faith on both sides, as it fully opens the systems of their base, and my ship, up to each other.

Despite that, the negotiations with them go poorly. They are a group of four Admirals, including the one I encountered with the Andersons, and while they are sympathetic to our cause, heck one of them is from the Free Worlds originally, they are unwilling to go against the Parliament. They do assure us that all steps are being taken to return our people to us, and even name drop Katya, who is currently being held in a Navy Intelligence facility. Still, after an hour of talking, they hang up.

"Well, at least they're willing to talk. Maybe when all this is over, they'll be the voices of reason to the Republic government," says Alondo dejectedly, as we set course for Longjump again. Once there, he transmits to JJ and the Senate the logs of his conversation with the Parliament and the Admirals. We wait onboard as they deliberate for an hour on what to do with the information. It's quickly decided to fly the flag in the three systems, and that my fleet will be the one to do it, as the Free Worlds forces are still recovering.

Alondo leaves the ship, to catch a transport back to Bourne, with his last order being to report to Trinket in the Sargas system. It will be the staging base for our attack on the three systems, though I can tell he's actually hoping the sight of my fleet will somehow unnerve the Navy forces, and maybe make them retreat. I'm less confident of that outcome, but I don't dissuade him of his optimism as I launch for those worlds, and find them crawling with Navy ships, more than I've ever seen before.

The fleets are on full deployment, all the time. Small ships flit about, doing various tricks, and showing off their speed, while the bigger ones fly in tight formations. None of them try to engage, but I know if I decided to, they'd hit me hard. I still think odds would be in my favor, as their fleets mass less than mine individually, but still, that many targets, and in dug in positions is not a good thing. Worse, I can see ground deployments as well, meaning it would be a real slog to take the worlds themselves.

After all that, I jump into Trinket to find it swarmed with ships. The sky of the planet is almost a contiguous cloud of metal, as ships of every size and description orbit around it. Small, single seat scouts, huge cargo vessels, and mid-sized luxury liners all share the space in a constantly spinning mob. Luckily, I'm given a priority berth, and land to find Freya waiting for me. She quickly takes the scans of the Navy ships, and I can hear her clicking her tongue as she scrolls through them, before turning to me.

"Hmm, lots of new models here, probably fast built at the Beetleguise yards. The real kicker though are these new weapons. I'm seeing some modded torpedoes, looks like they're designed with a new head to let them sink into a hull and do internal damage. And these new beams. They're on par with those alien weapons you're using," she said the last while bringing up the scan, and applying stats to it. I whistle at the stats given. The sunbeam I'd gotten from the Wanderers were better, but not by as much as I'd like.

"Does this mean we're calling off the attack?" I ask, and Freya just shakes her head.

"No, we can't afford that. Even if we didn't have uses for the resources of these worlds, we need to show the Navy we're a force to be reckoned with. It'll keep them and the pirates off us long enough to start spitting out ships of our own. Still, we could use some more data. Do you think you can grab one of these for us? I know Ijs says you had access to Navy grade scanners. Would that work for weapons too?" she asks, and it's my turn to shake my head.

"I'm afraid that was a one time deal, even if this probably weren't top secret. Still, I saw a lot of gunboats with those weapons, and my jumpdrives allow me to swipe things easy from those sorts of ships. It will mean engaging them, however. And if they take it as a sign to follow, I might be bringing a lot of enemies with me when I come back," I tell her, and Freya seems to consider this, biting the tip of her thumb a bit, before shrugging.

"It can't be helped. Get me that cannon, and I'll get more data on it. Try to avoid the big fleets, though. Maybe a patrol passing through Wei or Alnasi. They're probably moving convoys through those systems to the three defecting ones daily," she advises. I approve the idea, and set course.


	49. Battle Plans

Finding a Navy patrol was easy. Literally the moment we arrived in the Wei system, a fleet of ships was passing through. Two carriers, with supports. All of them obviously headed to the expected battlefield. The moment we jumped in, they were on alert, target locks for their missiles chiming in my ear. I ignored it, however, as my own fleet got into position, our force massively outgunning theirs by two or more orders of orders of magnitude. To the credit of the Navy officers, not a single ship fled, and those that arrived during the standoff fell into position easily with their comrades.

"It has been requested, by the Free Worlds leadership, that one of you turn over that new beam turret of yours. I think we can both see that any fight between us wouldn't be pretty for you, so I'll ask, will you surrender it to me?" I sent, and my reply was more missile locks, and finally a firing alert. My force went into battle instantly, hundreds of sunbeams raking out amongst the horde of enemy ships. Their new weapons did better damage against the hulls of my ships, but they weren't anywhere near as good as taking out shields. Worse, my sunbeams had the range advantage, resulting in a battle that lasted only a single pass.

We avoided, luckily, destroying any of the Navy ships, and even left most of them in working condition. Still, I quickly locked onto a gunboat, and grabbed an example of the fixed cannon and the turret model of the new weapon, as well as several of the missiles, before jumping back to Trinket. There, I was pleased to see the gathering forces were actually starting to look like a real fleet, with many a vessel equipping Barmy Edwards weapons. They looked heavy, and some of the smaller ships moved sluggishly, but they were now a force to be reckoned with.

Landing proved a bit more difficult this time, as Freya wasn't in a place she could be contacted easily, so I actually had to wait in line for a berth. Once I landed, however, a dozen Free Worlds engineers swarmed me, grabbing the new Electron weapons, as we now knew the Republic was calling them. They didn't even wait until they were out of sight to begin disassembling them, leaving me alone in my ship for almost an hour, before Freya came by, looking weary, but also, hopeful.

"Well, it's not as bad as it could be. Their new weapons are more efficient than ours, but while we may rev a little higher and run a little hotter, we've got a bit more punch to us too. That will at least give us some advantage when the fighting starts," she says, gratefully taking a cup of coffee from a droid and downing the thing in one pull, before signaling she would like another.

"Can we reverse engineer it? Maybe give us some more options?" I asked, and Freya looked thoughtful for a moment, as she took a second cup, and this time sipped at it, before finally shaking her head.

"We can, sure, but we don't have nearly enough time. We've barely got a handle on how to build a Heavy Laser. These new weapons are way in advance of that. For now, we'll go into battle with the weapons we have, and hope it's enough," she said, and then brought out a small projector. She set it on a nearby table, and let it warm up, soon having a floating image of a massive ship, slightly large than a Shield Beetle, and looking like it was just covered in weapons and armor.

"This is the newest ship model built out of Southbound, the Free Worlds' primary shipyard on Zug. They've got three of them fresh off the line, and want an escort for them to bring them here, just in case there's a problem. Since you've got the biggest force, and you're not going to be slotting in with any of the others, I'd like you to take care of that. When you return, we'll get them into a fleet, and then we'll launch. Hopefully, these things give us a way to go toe to toe with a Cruiser," she said, and I nodded, getting passcodes and the like from Freya, before my fleet takes off for Zug.

When we arrive, I get a good view of ships, some of them shiny and new, flying out back the way we'd come. Obviously reinforcements for the front. I give my name and the passcodes, and almost immediately, a trio of ships launch from the surface, their massive bulks dwarfing everything around them, as a channel opens up with the lead ship. It takes a moment for the comm to resolve a face out of the static, but when it does I see a young man, probably only a year older than I was when leaving New Boston.

"Sage Fleet, this is Dreadnaught Class battleship, Knights One, Two, and Three. We're joining your fleet along with our flotilla. Please confirm," he said, as I watched several Furies, and a few other vessels fall in with them.

"Admiral Sage confirms, follow our beacon, and we'll get you to Trinket in one piece," I tell him, smiling as he salutes. I don't do the gesture back, instead punching in the coordinates, and then vanishing in blue fire. We arrive at Trinket a few days later to find the fleet there engaged in battle. A Navy carrier had broken away from the line, and was trying to fight its way to the planet's surface, fighters screening, while the larger ship fired dozens of missiles. The tactic was more about fear than damage, as if any of those missiles hit, a city below would be vaporized.

"All incoming assets, protect Trinket!" shouted a very concerned officer's voice over the general comms. Before I can order my fleet to do anything, the three Dreadnaughts leap into action, their sides seeming to fold open, and dozens of weapons poking out from inside. Missiles fire, anti-missile lasers shine, and even a few bits of fire from Barmy Edwards flamethrowers can be seen, as they pass on either side of the carrier, and with that, the threat is ended, the carrier venting air from more than one hole, before it explodes in a spectacular display.

"Impressive," I say, as the ships, despite their bulk, easily turn and fall into formation with the fleet. I leave them to it, making my way back to Trinket's surface, and finding it still whole, though the people seem shaken up. Freya doesn't even meet me at the port, instead I have to go out to find her, sipping what is obviously alcohol at a cafe, her hands shaking a little as she sits there, only barely acknowledging me as I take a seat across from her.

"Are you okay?" I ask, first thing, and she looks like she's about to break down crying for a moment, before taking a deep breath, and then letting it out in a long sigh.

"I'm not. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep in days, and the sirens woke me up from a nap. I didn't even know what was going on until it was over, and you can imagine how good that was for my nerves," she admits, taking another hit from the cup, and then grabbing the bottle and just chugging from it for a moment.

"Ah, still, we must move on. Our force is assembled, and the Navy is obviously taking us seriously this time. I keep hoping they'll retreat and just give us the worlds that want to join us, but they won't do that, will they?" she asked, and I shake my head.

"I'm afraid Parliament holds their leash, and they won't give up any ground. Still, those admirals seemed to not want to fight a losing battle. If we can just show enough force, they'll back down," I tell her, and she takes that in, before pulling out a holomap, and quickly tracing routes.

"Okay, then we'll make a show of it. If they start to pull out, I want to you let them go, but until then, you fight as hard as you can. We've got a massive attack force here, and we'd best get to using it," she said, and then highlighted systems.

"Our main force here is going to go the long way, swing around to New India, and then to New Portland, before coming to Dancer in the Rastaban system. Before they get there, I want your fleet to engage the Navy forces there. Despite being the closest to us here on Trinket, they've got the smallest garrison there. I expect they'll retreat easily enough, falling back to the other two to reinforce them. I want you to surprise them, and try and keep them from going anywhere," she instructed, moving ship icons around the map as she spoke.

"After that, you'll sweep forward, as some of our reserves bring up your rear. Hopefully, we can win this fight without you having to face anymore danger, but if it comes down to it, you're our ace in the whole with your alien weapons," she explains.

"Sounds like a plan," I tell her, and then rise. She merely nods, before taking another long pull on her bottle, and then setting the empty container down. With that, we leave the cafe, and I'm soon in space, my fleet falling into formation around me, as I watch the other ships start to jump away, moving towards their own battles.

"All ships, we're going in hot, we're going in heavy. Stay on alert at all times, and cover for each other. Remember, we're not here to die for our country, but to make the other guy die for his, got it?" I order, and get confirmation from my forces. With a chuckle, I give the last order, and my fleet jumps away to war.


	50. Contact with the Enemy

We arrive to find the system as locked down as one would expect. The Navy vessels hang in orbit, a metallic cloud that blocks the sun on the world below. Weapons lock on the moment we're in range, and I can see shining particles near the tips of the weapons, even as missiles are probably being loaded inside. STAR, for his part, begins to give me priority targeting data for my own weapons, as the ships in my fleet fall into place, becoming a series of flying wedges that begin to swoop down towards the Navy vessels.

What follows is a melee I can barely comprehend, as my force dives down towards the near center of the formation, while others give us cover from the wings. My ship, and two others, form the core of a wedge that drives itself into the heart, smashing our way through the enemy line. Fighters and smaller ships try to get in our way, but sunbeam turrets take them out before they can get into position, and the moment we're in range, I let loose the forward facing pair, the yellow streams of light crossing the distance in a moment to slam hard into the carrier I'd been aiming at.

The beams strike home with flashes, as the carrier's shields give resistance, but with three of us firing together, and with most of the carrier's support vessels engaged with the rest of our wedge, they can only hold up for a moment. That moment is enough time for a few gunboats to get in range, and suddenly space is lit with blue and yellow beams crisscrossing space, as the electron beams are added to the riot of colors. Blue is no match for yellow, in this case, as the few blue lances are silenced seconds later, the shields of my group barely grazed, as we leave the enemy force behind us adrift.

I don't have long to celebrate the victory, as more fighters pour into the mix, launched from other carriers, some of which had been hiding behind the planet, out of line of sight aiming. The turrets on our ships strain, metal screaming as it's pushed almost to tolerance levels, trying to keep up with the swarm. While it only takes a moment for a sunbeam to disable a fighter, there are just so many that we're actually forced into a fighting retreat, as more enemies slide into place, a large cruiser opening missile bays and firing at just outside the range of our beams.

The Hai's missile lasers begin their work, but it forces us to shut down our attack, as the two beam types together draw more power than our cores can produce. That alone gives the Navy breathing room, and I watch as the cruiser begins to assemble a new fleet around itself, gunboats and small fighters turning into a spear to pierce our formation in the same way we'd done with theirs. STAR is already marking targets for me, telling me to keep the retreat up, even as the Navy shoots forward.

Then the interception happens. A dozen Shield Beetles, some smoking from holes in their chassis, come screaming down towards the Navy ships. Their beams like the thunder from some great war god tear through the Navy line. Fighters that had been harassing us are left as burning slag, while the bigger ships soon sport brand new ventilation, out of which I see bodies and equipment tumble. The attack doesn't let up, however, and soon, we advance as well, as yet more ships of my fleet join in the assault. In moments, it's over, the cruiser issues orders to retreat, just before we render the ship itself inoperable.

The victory is total, the few Navy ships able to do so jump out, and those that remain cease to fight back, most activating emergency beacons, and more than a few launching escape pods and shuttles. Looking at them, and then at the report, we'd taken more than nine out of every ten vessels out, and while far too many of those were destroyed, there's still a lot of simply disabled ships floating dead in space, while ground forces below look to be digging in at entrenched positions.

My own fleet is mostly whole. A few ships are damaged, but their cores are already repairing them. Heck, only one even needs to be docked with to help with that. Looking at the stats, we'd won the day with nary a casualty, and yet, I feel awful. These men and women did not want to be here, they'd been ordered to come by some high and mighty politician who barely knew the name of the place they were sending these people to die at. That thought is deep in my mind as I order my fleet to begin recovery operations.

We begin the grim work, docking and evacuating those we can, and vaporizing those hulls that are too far gone to be worth recovering, but are blocking the spaceways. A few pot shots at the ground forces get them to surrender as well, and soon enough, I have the Admiral, the same woman who'd been on my ship during the Anderson mission, and who'd talked with JJ and myself at their base on New Wales. Apparently she'd been transferred here to take command, as Dancer was her homeworld.

"I must admit, I didn't expect to be coming back onto this ship as a prisoner of war," she says to me as she walks onto the bridge. Behind her I can hear the chatter, as her crew finds bunks for themselves. As per regulations, not one of her people had tried anything in regards to taking my ships for themselves, a proposition that would not have been hard, given their numbers. So I incline my head, and then offer her a chair, on the opposite side of the bridge from where Bandit and Joe are still poring over reports, and issuing orders.

"Such is fate, is it not?" I ask, and the woman chuckles a little. She doesn't say anything else, however, as all our attention is soon taken up by rescue operations, getting as many of her people out as possible, and then preparing the way, as Free Worlds troop transports arrive to take the world below. The ground forces surrender at the Admiral's command, and her people are taken off my ship, being held below as transport is being arranged for those who are willing to take the oath.

"Sage, Admiral," says Alondo as he and Freya come onto my ship, having flown with the fleet through the other systems. They've been taken as well, and all three worlds are now flying the flag of the Free Worlds. Sadly, not every battle went as well as my own, and of the three Dreadnaughts with the other fleet, only one is still in operating condition. Another can be repaired, but it will take time, and the third, was destroyed by a mass missile attack at New Portland, taking the hits so the rest of the fleet could win the day.

"Ah, Councilors. I assume we're here to talk terms then?" she said, sipping at her coffee, and the pair nod as they take seats at the table with her. For my part, I get up and stand in the corner, as, despite her being my prisoner, her treatment isn't really my decision.

"We are. The other fleet commanders said you were in the one in charge of this operation, and that makes you the lady to talk to," says Freya, and the woman nods.

"As a native, the Parliament believed I would be the proper face to put in the posters and the like, really get the people behind us. Of course, we told them none of these worlds had proper defenses, and it seems we truly underestimated the strength of your forces, Ms. Winters," she says, turning an eye towards me. I, wisely I think, say nothing, and the three continue their conversation. They mostly discuss the Oath, and who's willing to take it. The Admiral herself is, as it turns out, though she does have some sad news to report.

"We did attempt to find your friend, Katerina Reynolds before I set off. As a gesture of good faith to match your allowing Oathkeepers their freedom. Unfortunately, Navy Intelligence is not as much part of our organization as we'd sometimes like. They have her, their leader admits that, but he's refusing her release. However, I'm offering you my own Oath. If we're returned now, I will make certain she's freed, even if I have to lead a strike force to do it myself," she declares, and I can hear the resolve in her voice.

"Hmm, that sounds like a good deal, and as we have three Councilors here, we can put it to a vote," said Freya.

"Oh, is JJ here on Dancer?" I ask, wondering why I hadn't been told about it, but the two smile at each other in a way that is just shy of conspiratorial, before Alondo turns back to me.

"No, but you are, and by unanimous vote of the Council, and a majority of the Senate, you've been appointed to replace Tomek as the Military seat. We've come to depend on your forces, and you've shown no small amount of skill in the butt kicking department, both here on Dancer, and in many other missions. If you decline, it's fine, we'll have another vote, but I'm sure the Senate would be miffed. Senator Huygen especially spoke of your iron will and resolve as something we desperately need in these dark times," he assures me, and that actually takes me a moment to process, as I remember that complaining little woman. Still, after a bit of chin stroking, I reach out a hand, and shake his.

"I reserve the right to quit whenever I damn well please, but for now, I'll take the seat," I tell him, and he nods.

"A mercenary's life, eh?" he responds, and only then do I take a seat at the table, planning out routes for the troop carriers that will bring our prisoners to the Republic, as we have little room for them here, and I trust the Admiral's word. With that done, it takes almost a week of moving to get everyone to Dancer, and then loaded up, but after that, I launch with the convoy in tow, to deliver them, and hopefully bring the war between the Republic and the Free Worlds to a more peaceful end.


	51. Down Time

The troop transports land on New Iceland, the world set to receive them, and I'm actually surprised. When I was here last, while simply exploring the galaxy, the place was barely a footnote on the galactic stage, with only a few settlements and some random farms. Now there's a massive military base, ships flying in and out in an almost constant stream, and troops training, both on the ground, and in ships, showing just how much force the Navy still has left to throw at us.

Most of the activity shifts focus as we land. After all, we have thousands of their brothers and sisters to deliver to them, and everyone lends a hand, getting gear and personnel offloaded much faster that they'd been loaded. Some of that is just the natural result of such activity, but a lot of it is actually because of how efficient the Navy is, everyone moving in unison, with as little wasted effort as possible. The Admiral spends most of the time during this on my ship, saluting in greeting as someone in similar garb comes up to us.

"Well, well, so here you are. I was wondering where I'd find you," he says as he returns the salute, and then walks up the ramp to join us.

"So, I take it you're the one who defeated our good lady here. I have to admit, I'm impressed," he said, taking my hand and shaking it.

"You should be. His ships fly better than the sims said they should be able to," she said, and the two get to talking about business, mostly where to deploy the current force incoming, as they will not be assisting in the war against the Free Worlds.

"More Oathkeepers then. This is going to really please the Parliament when they find out almost twenty-three percent of our forces can't even engage the enemy they're so keen on us fighting," he said, scratching the back of his head as she looked over a galactic map they'd brought with them.

"Indeed. Perhaps I can be put in charge of those in the north then? Maybe clean out those pirate worlds once and for all," she said, only for the man beside her to cough nervously, we both turn to him, as he pulls out a piece of paper, and unfolds it.

"Unfortunately, it is my duty to inform you that your commission has been revoked. As of now, you're no longer an officer of the Republic Navy," he said, a bit dourly, as he handed the paper to her. The woman snatched it out of his hand and read it over at least three times, before swearing in a language I didn't understand.

"Let me guess, scapegoat?" she said after taking a few calming breaths.

"I'm afraid so. The Parliament believes the Navy's reputation needs to remain unblemished, so they're saying all kinds of things about you. Even implying that you didn't do your best, and were trying to lose the fight as part of some scheme with the Free Worlds. We 'convinced' them that acting on that thought train was not going to be good for the Republic, but we had to give them something. I'm sorry," he apologized, and she nodded, folding the paper up and slipping it into her pocket.

"So, I'm to be an Adjunct then? Who's?" she asked, and he pointed to himself.

"I asked for it. Especially since I'm going to be taking over the Oathkeepers for the moment. I won't be bringing you with me when I come back south to lead the forces here," he said, and I understood myself. Her position was no longer official, but she'd be at least somewhat in charge of the Oathkeepers, as the representative of the Admiral's will, while he was here fighting against us.

"Before that, I swore an additional oath. I'm to help Katerina Reynolds return to the Free Worlds. Did we find anything else about her?" she asked, obviously for my benefit, and the man looked at her, before sucking in a breath and letting it out in a long whistle.

"That's a tall order, I'm afraid. The head of NavInt is her keeper right now, and you know how Fawkes is. He's not going to let her go easily," he told her, but her face got a rather hard edge to it.

"Doesn't matter. Mr. Sage, I'm going to go now, and I assure you, we'll have her back to you as soon as I can arrange it," she tells me, before the pair salute. I return the gesture, and then watch as they walk off into the crowd, shouting orders as they go. When the transports are empty, I escort them back to Dancer, where Alondo and Freya meet me in the port. They've both been busy here, including getting planetary leaders of the three worlds sign the relevant treaties, and begin to setup their seats on the Senate.

"Well, with that done, I'm afraid there's not much else for you to do. Tomek's job is yours, but, I'm fairly certain you don't want to take the day to day operation of our forces onto your plate, right?" asked Alondo, and I was very quick to tell him no.

"Then for the moment, I'd suggest you busy yourself with whatever business you have. Keep a comm channel open, and we'll contact you when more military activity is necessary, though hopefully, this is the last real fight you'll need to be a part of," says Freya, before both just wander off, leaving me to my own devices. That being the case, I head back to Longjump, as it's the center of trade, and I figure it's the place to go to find ways to help the Free Worlds along, even if it's just another transport job.

I'm approached that same hour we land in the spaceport bar by a man. He's dressed in a business suit, but one with a logo on it I recognize as belonging to the Southbound Shipyards. He takes a while to come to me, so I just sit at the table while he wanders around the bar, inching his way closer and closer, until finally, he sits down beside me. Looking around, to see if anyone was looking our way, he leans closer and pulls something out of his coat. Placing it before me, I notice it's an incomplete schematic, one I recognize as the Wanderer Ramscoops all my ships have.

"I see you know this design," he says, looking towards me, and tapping the edge of the schematic, which has the logo of the Deep Yards, the shipyards where the Deep makes most of their warships on Valhalla.

"I assume you bought at least some outfits from them, given the drives you're known to use. While you were there, at some point, the Deep Thinkers got a good scan of your tech. Unfortunately for them, only this one got useful information. My group has been keeping abreast of that development, and we know they've reverse engineered it into a new ramscoop design. Not as good as your's, but better than anything we've got," he told me, looking around again as he puts the schematic back into his suit, and then pulls out a piece of paper.

"Why tell me about it?" I ask, and he smiles, handing the paper to me.

"You're the only one with those nice little ramscoops, and thus, the only fleet with the range to get to Valhalla. We've got a contact there, who's willing to give us the new designs, using a datapod he's hidden it in system. Go there, grab the pod, and come back. With those scoops, we'll be able to get our forces around more easily, maybe give you some backup, during the next engagement," he says, and I notice the paper has a comm frequency on it. Probably for the datapod. Without another word, he gets up and leaves, letting me decide for myself what to do with the information.


	52. Pieces Coming Together

I decide to follow up on the lead. The tech they based it off of is mine, after all. Well, the Wanderers, but still, it was in my ship, and I felt transgressed and violated by their scans. If they'd asked, back before the conflict had started, there was a maybe that I would have allowed such scans. After all, while I wasn't willing to give my things away, allowing someone else to make the human race better with what I found was just what old Elizabeth would have done. They didn't ask, however. They just took, and one good thieving deserves another.

The route we picked went up the side of the Republic, with ships and people mostly willing to stay out of the way of a massive warfleet a it made its way north. Only one person even tried anything. A militia woman, flying a Sparrow, firing her beams at one of my ships. He requested permission to return fire, but I forbade it, and we contemptuously ignored her, using the local to refuel at that point in the voyage, before jumping away, leaving her firing at empty space as we did the last few jumps.

Once we arrived, it was obvious they'd been preparing for our coming. One of the paradoxes of hyperspace travel, even with the jump drives was that interstellar comms were faster than ships, as jumping matter took a whole day, while comms were instantaneous when you had relays to beam the stuff around. They didn't spend the time idle, gathering a large force, actually slightly bigger than the Admirals forces at Dancer, and now they stood arrayed, each vessel powered up and ready for what they probably assumed to be a surgical strike at the Deep Thinkers themselves.

I scan for the frequency I'd been given, and receive the ping of a beacon almost instantly, coming from the near side of one of Valhalla's moons, out of sight of the defensive fleet. Smirking, I order my ships to fall into formation, while flying off on my own, driving right towards the moon. The enemy commander, not knowing what I'm up to, separates a few ships from their fleet, in a guard, rather than attack formation. They match course and speed, but otherwise don't accelerate towards me.

By the time they realize what's going on, I've already grabbed the pod and ordered my forces to jump back out. We arrive in a nearby system to a smaller force guarding that planet, but with our tanks topped off, we're able to jump again right way, and then again, getting far beyond the range of their forces. Heck, by the time the leadership learns anything had gone on, I'm in Free Worlds space, and landing on Solace, where the paper said my contact would be waiting for me, and he is.

"Good work, Admiral Sage," he tells me, as he takes the datapod off my ship, and plugs a handbrain into it. The palmtop computer downloads the contents of the pod, which then emits smoke as it self destructs, rendering the insides of it inert and unreadable.

"Yes, yes, exactly what we needed. We've been hearing about this new outfit for some time, but we've never been able to get a good look at the things. With this, we should be able to begin mass production in a few weeks, if not days. The Free Worlds thanks you," he tells me, handing me a credit chit, and then walking off. Pocketing the money, I launch off again, finding a message in my buffer from Freya. Apparently something's about to boil over, and they need me to report to Dancer right away.

The moment I enter the system, I can see it's prepared and ready for war once again. A huge fleet of ships, almost twice the size of the previous, is assembled in orbit. And most of them are actually warships this time, though obviously either under crewed, or at least crewed by inexperienced people. The ship drift, and I see at least one of them impact another, but they're in real fighting machines now, not some civilian ship given guns, which would crump under any sort of attack.

"Ah, there you are," says Freya the moment I'm on the ground, as her and Alondo walk right up the ramp. The latter has a pack with him, so I quickly guide them to a bunk, and we get down to business as Alondo stores his things.

"We've got to move quickly. Three more systems have said they want to join us. Seginus, Alphacca, and Alioth are all open to becoming part of the Free Worlds. We've been trying to discuss things with them in secret, but I'm pretty sure we all know how that went last time," says Freya, and I nod. Things like worlds changing governments aren't nearly as secret as people want them to be.

"Do you think that's a good idea? Defecting systems from the Republic joining us, I mean? Doesn't that justify the fear the Parliament had about letting the first three go?" I ask, and the two look at each other, before Freya sighs.

"It's true, it might look like a power grab, but we know it's not. Besides, with over seventeen percent of their fleet gone, and twenty-three percent of the Navy sworn not to take up arms against us, even indirectly, they're going to have a hard time defending them anyway. Besides, with those systems, we'll control the routes into Free Worlds space completely. That makes our bargaining position all the better in any post war negotiations," she says, and I nod, as she pulls out a galactic map, and points to the systems.

"I want you to hit Seginus first, then to Alphacca, and finally swing to New Tibet in the Alioth system where Alondo will be meeting with the leaders of the three worlds. Your fleet should be able to deal with any Navy patrols in those systems, and once we have them, I'll have our remaining forces move the line up. With the holes to the Free Worlds plugged up, they'll have a harder time hitting us, and our own forces will be less spread out than they are now," she explains, and I nod.

"Thanks to your effort in retrieving those plans for the Catalytic Ramscoop the Deep developed, we've got a real chance here. If we can gain footholds in those systems, we'll be in the defensive position, and we can really dig in our heels," she says, and I turn to her.

"You're aware of that then?" I ask, and she smirks at me in a conspiratorial way.

"I was a plant manager for the Southbound Shipyards before all this. They still pass some information my way. Regardless, with that Ramscoop, and the Grendel Station up and running again, we've got the fuel capacity to match the Republics. Our force is almost the same size, as well, though, obviously they've got the manpower advantage. Any idiot can see our advantages are mounting. If the Republic doesn't sue for peace soon, we'll be in a position to make demands, rather than concession," she says, and Alondo gives a 'hear, hear', before Freya makes her way off my ship. Minutes later, we're in space, and jumping off to battle once more.


	53. More Worlds, More Problems

The fighting this time is light. A few gunboats, no cruisers, and no carriers. At best, we sweep them aside as we fly through the system. Heck, most of the time not even that, as our entrance is followed by them running off, which makes me nervous as we make our way to New Tibet. Landing is easy enough, and the three planetary governors are waiting for us as we walk down the ramp, Alondo with contracts in hand, leads them off for some last minute negotiations, leaving me standing around.

I stand around, and get looks from those around me. Most still fly Merchant Blue, rather than Free Worlds Green, but they all seem to approve of my presence, looking up at my Shield Beetle as if it's some titanic guardian. I don't tell any of them that I'm probably not staying in system. My fleet would be better used in a mobile capacity, rather than stationary guard. Still, I smile and wave back, until finally, Alondo returns, a concerned look on his face as he files copies of the papers with STAR, who copies them even as we walk back into my ship.

"Something wrong?" I ask, and he almost seems startled by my words, jerking his head to look at me, before he sucks in a breath, and then sighs it back out.

"Just, thinking, I suppose. We now control the hyperspace route that leads directly into Free Worlds space now. There are other routes, of course, but once we dig in our heels here, it's not going to be easy for the Navy to remove us. That begs the question, however, of why they didn't have more forces defending these worlds. A few carriers, some cruisers, something more than the patrols we saw," as he spoke, he put his hand in the air, and summoned a holographic interface, on which he quickly brought up some reports.

"More than that, we've got six new worlds, with new people, to somehow integrate into our government. They've agreed to join us, but that's not as simple as just flipping the color of the system on the Galactic map. We need to look into adding their local economies to ours, find out exactly what goods and resources can be traded between them, and that's not even getting into the cost of putting defenses on the worlds themselves," he said, showing me trade and econmic reports for a few moments, before waving them away, and just sighing.

"Still, that's what we're here for. We're here to help make it so normal people can have a government they respect and are glad to have. Or at least as much as possible. You're here for different reasons, however," he said this while pulling something out of his pocket, and opening it up. Instantly, I tense. The picture is of Darien, the youngest of the Old Men from New Boston, standing in some port I didn't recognize.

"Before you ask, I can't tell you where he's at, but we looked into it, and we found he moves in some fairly high circles of power in the Republic government. This photo was taken on Earth, almost a year ago, during some meetings that had been stalled in regards to Navy deployments. Shortly after the meeting, everything cleared up, and it's because of that, that we've been fighting the major deployments we have. Without that meeting, the Parliament probably would have had only a few cruisers down here to send against us," he explained, and I nod dumbly as I look at that face, and feel a bit of the old rage burn.

"We don't know what his position is within the government of the Republic, and in fact, can't find a thing about him in any of our files. Still, we know he's a mover and shaker and has been for as far back as our records go. Killing him is not advised, at least not until all of this is over," he said the last while staring at me, getting me to look up, and I stare daggers back. Still, I lean back after a few seconds, pocketing the picture as I do.

"My price still stands, but I'll put your mission ahead of mine for now. It is more helpful to people at this point, and I want answers now. Why would someone with that much clout, care about my family? We're rich, to be sure, but I've been thinking about it, and this clinches it. They've got more money than I do, so there's got to be something else going on there," I answer, and Alondo's face brightens up a bit at that, losing the hard look he'd had a moment before.

"Then let's find answers, together. For now, I need you to go get Freya. She's got some new sensor rig she wants to use to sweep the systems we've just taken for Navy spy gear. We're hoping that if every sensor goes dark, they'll be even less likely to try anything sudden," he tells me, and then walks towards the ramp.

"File those papers with the authorities on Dancer when you arrive. I'm going to stay here, for now, and iron out some trade deals. Hopefully keep anything from going wrong with our new allies," he said, and then walked off. I went back to my bridge, and within a few jumps, landed on Dancer, where Freya was waiting for me, along with a familiar face. The suited man who'd sent me on the mission to get the ramscoop. The two are having a heated argument as I step up to them.

"And I'm telling you, we're not going to do that!" she shouts at him, swinging a rather large tool in his face. The man isn't intimidated, and merely stares at her.

"It would put an end to this war in short order, and you know it," he responds, the two obviously about to go into another cycle of shouting, when they finally notice me. Both look at each other, and Freya quickly puts the tool away.

"Should I come back at a better time?" I ask, and Freya shakes her head, but it's the man who speaks first.

"No, not at all. Perhaps you can settle our disagreement. After all, you've been elevated to Councilor Voigt's old position, have you not?" he asks, and I nod, feeling a weight in the pit of my stomach at the mention of Tomek, and knowing he should be doing this job, not me.

"Excellent. I'll be blunt then. Your predecessor had plans for when the war reached this point. Plans that a few of us, his 'Wolf Pack', were made privy to should the worst happen to him. Your quick retrieval of the ramscoop plans have given us an opportunity to end the war in short order, with the minimum amount of fuss," as he speaks, Freya looks ready to pick up her tool again, but I motion for her to keep it low, both because I'm curious about it, and because it would be only right to hear both sides before I decide.

"What plan would do that? The war's pretty much stalled right now, and we're in a position to sue for peace soon enough. I doubt the Parliament wants to drag a losing fight out any longer than they have to," I tell him, and he smiles, giving a light chuckle.

"Yes, well, the Parliament can be very, very stubborn when they want to be. After all, they feel safe where they are, defended by ships of the Navy, with all the comforts of modern life on their Paradise worlds. And yet, those same worlds are not self sufficient," as he speaks, he holds up a handbrain, and quickly projects a galactic map out of it. One with the Dirt Belt highlighted on it.

"You want to cut off their food supply?" I ask, as what he's saying sinks in. Materials were, after all, abundant and plentiful in space, with organic matter being the thing to find, in both the form of people, and food stuffs. The Dirt Belts entire purpose was to raise enough food for the galaxy, with more than forty percent of humanity being fed by those worlds.

"Indeed. The Dirt Belt worlds aren't trading with the Free Worlds, and are loyal to their masters on Earth, but their convoys tend to be under defended, especially with the Navy's recent losses in the fighting. A few missed shipments, and the people of the Republic will be starving for peace," he says the last with a smile that's just this side of evil, and then banishes the hologram, leaving us in silence. Freya, for her part, fumes a bit, but doesn't say anything as I lean back and stroke my chin.

It's an effective tactic, to be sure. Wars had been won that way in the past, but would it work nowadays? Like he said, even a few lost convoys of food items would really, really send the Republic screaming. But would they sue for peace, or go for all out war? That was the question. A coin toss. On one side, the war ends, with only a few more people having to die. On the other side, the war gets worse. I wouldn't put it past them to start doing orbital bombardment strikes on worlds we control, or might take.

"I see your point, but I disagree," I say at last, and Freya's eyes almost literally light up, as the man seems to be a bit taken aback, but he doesn't rage or anything, merely motioning towards me with his hand.

"Might I ask, why? Surely a few inconveniences for the Paradise worlds are worth freedom for the rest of us," he says, and I shake my head.

"If that's all that would happen, yes, I'd agree. But the people, the poor and downtrodden masses, would be the ones to suffer, and we all know from history, when that happens, things get ugly. Fast. If we go with your plan, rather than simply proving we can hold them off, we'll never have real peace. We'll just have a ceasefire," I explain, and he seems to consider this for a moment, before nodding.

"I see your point. Tomek believed it was the best course, and I trust his judgement, but you're the one leading the fleets now, and I won't argue with you. I'll inform the others we'll be holding off on this plan. However, if your way doesn't work, remember, we've got the tools and information to enact our plan whenever it becomes necessary," he tells me, before walking away. Freya, almost giddy, waves him off.

"And we'll be rubbing it in your face when they do recognize us as a fully independent government, without stooping to such lows," she shouts after him, but then remembers where she is and clears her throat. Quickly stowing away the tool, she follows me back to my ship, where her people are already loading equipment.

"I've gotta admit, I was kind of expecting you to take him up on his idea. It really would end the war, one way or the other, in a few months at most. Our way could take years, at this rate," she says as we walk inside, and I turn to her.

"Do you really think I'm some kind of monster, to starve people to win a war?" I ask, and she quickly shakes her head.

"No, not a monster, just a man with a lot of hate in his heart. You've made it pretty clear the Free Worlds isn't your cause, just a means to an end, an end that could come a lot quicker if you're willing to play dirty," she tells me, and I stop her, looking around, before turning to face her.

"I'm not going to lie, I want those bastards dead, but that's a personal thing. They killed my mother, as good as put a knife through her heart with what they did to us. After that, they came after me, twice, to try and capture me, and throw me in a cell, alive, but with all my freedoms striped. They're my targets for those things, but I won't make others suffer if I don't have to. I'm not a good man, I'll be the first to admit, but I'd like to think I'm also not a bad one," I tell her bluntly, and she seems to take that in over a few heartbeats, before nodding.

"Alright, well then, let's get going. We've got some sensors to track down. We'll start with Hope, since we know there's some there, and then visit a few other worlds where I think we might find some toys left behind by the Navy," she says, seemingly forgetting our conversation as she makes her way to the bridge, waving at Joe and Bandit, as we launch off again.


	54. Taking Shape

Freya begins fiddling with the sensors the moment we're in orbit of Hope, doing things with them I've never seen before, and even pushing them past what I'd been told their tolerances were. After a few minutes of this, a small projection of Hope floats in front of her, and it has several dots on it. Some, I recognize as the sensors I installed all those weeks ago after the first major conflict of the war. There's more than a few others, however, including one in a very familiar location.

"Hmm, I thought I took the relay out," I say, pointing to the canyon, and Freya barks out a laugh as she begins to tune out her sensors, leaving only a score or so dots on the planet's surface, which we begin targeting.

"Yeah, you took out the big rig looking thing, right?" she asks, and I nod.

"Decoy. What that is is a drill of some power, putting the actual device several meters underground. Unless it extends its sensor to capture and transmit, which it only does every once in awhile, you'll never find it. Luckily for us, my sensor have been recording its transmissions, so I could triangulate its position, otherwise we'd never have found it," she tells me, even as my sunbeams streak out, small bursts firing off and destroying the dots, that go dark, leaving only our own scanners below.

"Hmm, your weapons don't have the dispersal patterns I was expecting. Still, we'll head to Clark next. I doubt we'll have any trouble, but I would advise, since that world has people on it, not firing at the surface from orbit," she tells me as we jump. Once in Clark, we find a small Navy patrol in orbit, doing battle with a few defenders flying Free Worlds colors. The Navy ships, the moment they ID us, hyperspace out of the system, and allowing us to land in the small spaceport at Clark's capital.

"Yes, the center of the city. Probably set up in an old base or something. We'll have to proceed carefully," she says, and we leave the ship, Joe and Bandit insisting on coming along, with their weapons at the ready. We, for once, don't have to do any violence to achieve mission success, as the source of the sensor turns out to be an old warehouse, probably abandoned for a few decades. A simple kick from Bandit breaks the door down, and we find the relay standing in an empty room, surrounded by dozens of scanners.

"This shouldn't take us long. Have some of those droids come by and help us carry this back to the ship. I do love getting to play with Navy grade tech, and we could use some upgrades to our own scanners," she says, quickly disabling the devices one by one, finishing the last just as the bots arrive, and we all proceed back to my ship.

"Next, New Holland. I doubt there's anything there, since you'd have to pass here, or by Hope, but better safe than sorry. After that, we can swing by New Tibet and pickup Alondo. That should be the end of this, and we can get back to more important work," she says. She turns out to be right, too. New Holland is a dry well for Navy sensors, though we do several sweeps to make sure of that, before finally jumping to New Tibet, and landing to find Alondo already in the port waiting for us.

"We've taken care of all the sensors on the other worlds. Get the people here to go to these two locations, and take out the local ones, and the Navy's going to go blind in this part of space. With that done, we can start moving ships around without tipping our hand. We should also proceed back to Southbound. Two new Dreadnaughts are ready for the front line by now, and we'll have more in the coming weeks," she tells the two of you. Alondo soon issues the orders, and we wait for confirmation that the sensors are dead, before launching off again.

"So, where do you think we should put the new toys? You're the military leader, after all," asks Alondo as we enter orbit, and I take a moment to bring up a galactic map, quickly looking over the options, before shrugging.

"Here, at New Tibet. It's still the direct route to our space. The only other way in is a series of jumps, and that means we'll have some warning of their coming. We'll be stretched pretty thin defending all that space though," I say, considering where my own fleet would be best put to use.

"Hmm, do you think you can help them accelerate production, Freya? You're the best engineer in the Free Worlds," he says, and she smiles at him.

"You know just what to say to a girl, don't you? Still, I'll see what I can do. If we can start mass production even a few hours early, it'll really help our military potential," she agrees, and we set course for Zug, where the shipyards are located. We land there, the whole fleet this time, and I let my captains stretch their legs while the two of us go to the main office of the Southbound Shipyards. The moment she enters, Freya begins issuing orders I can't even follow, but within an hour, even I can see the place is running better, as fighters and smaller ships are being spit out by the factories, while the two Dreadnaughts are finished in a flash, with a third hull being slapped down minutes later.

"Ah, I forgot how much fun this is. Still, wish Katya were here. It's hard being the only woman on the Council," she says as you both relax in an out of the way office, sipping caffeinated drinks.

"We have the word of an ex-Admiral turned Adjunct that they're working on it, and I trust her. The Navy seems to be obsessed with keeping its word," you tell her, and she nods, before passing you a few reports.

"Enough complaining. You should look those over, and start issuing orders. The fleet needs to know where to go, to best defend us. Once you're done with that, we'll head to the spaceport bar after I'm finished up here. We've got some big decisions to make, and not ones that should be made sober," she says, and then leaves. Opening the papers, I quickly look them over, and then open a comm channel with STAR, who transmits my orders to the fleets of the Free Worlds, reinforcing worlds I expect to be attacked, though I notice even those are woefully under garrisoned. Still, until we have more Dreadnaughts, we do what we can, and I soon leave the factory with Freya.

We go to the bar, where we get a private room, in the back, where no one will bother us, and the man running the bar is given our comms, with orders not to give them back to us unless there's some kind of emergency. Freya, for her part, takes her whiskey straight. As in, straight from the bottle. Long pulls, deep gulps, and every other way that means she just swallows loads of the stuff. She's a happy drunk at least, and gets warmer to me as she gets a bit deeper into the bottle, letting me ask questions I'd been wondering about.

"So, how does an engineer from Southbound become a Councilor in charge of the Free Worlds, anyway?" I ask, and she smiles at me through the whiskey.

"Oh, you know the story. Girl finds job in ship building. Military needs more ships, and so Girl yells at Military about demands. After that, they gave me a job in the Southern Defense Pact, in design for the factories and such where our ships are built. That kind of carried over when the SDP became the Free Worlds, and I was shuffled all the way to the top, because Tomek respected my opinions. He felt we needed a number cruncher at the top, someone who knew ships, and how much they could take," she says the last, and her buzz kind of dies, then again, so does mine, as I remember Tomek, and we drink to his memory in silence for a while..

"Eh, might as well get this over with," she says at last, and the two of us leave our private room and get our comms back. Freya then sets about ordering two large bottles of champagne, to go. The barkeep gives her a weird look, but doesn't question the orders of a Councilor, especially one paying top dollar, as we leave. A few minutes later, we're at the field, standing in front of the two Dreadnaught, each of us holding a bottle, and talking into our comms.

"Okay, ready to christen the new ships?" she asks.

"On three!" I say, and begin counting down, the two of us flinging our bottles at the same moment.

"For Justice!" I cry, and she does the same, the bottle smashing into the hulls and leaving a nice small river of bubbles running down the side.

"May it come soon," she tells me, and we walk back together. She then takes me to the port, where my ships are already fueled and waiting.

"JJ's going to be fine where he is, but I'm almost certain Alondo's going to need these reinforcements fast. Take the Dreadnaughts to him at Clark in the Seginus system, and he'll take them to New Tibet afterwards," she tells me, and a few hours later, my fleet, plus the two bulks, launch into orbit. With the Dreadnaughts we make poor time, but still, we do arrive in system, and land, to find Alondo waiting for me on the pad the moment my ramp is down.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you, Sage," he says, as he rushes up to shake my hand, and then pulls a galactic map out of his pocket.

"We've got a bit of a crisis situation going on right now. Medical supplies we'd ordered from the Syndicate had to pass through Republic space, since their non-combat and essential, so protected by law from seizure except in dire circumstances. Still, the Republic's been burying them in red tape, and now they've just sort of blockaded them in at New Kansas. We need to you get them, and make sure the convoy makes it to New Tibet," with that mission in hand, I leave Alondo to take the Dreadnaughts to New Tibet, while I launch my fleet off to find the convoy.


	55. Poisonwood in Peril

As it turns out, the delaying of the convoy was being done because of a fleet that was moving at a slow pace in and out of the New Kansas yard. All military ships, and thus priority types, and all going as slow as possible. Without fuel, the convoy was stuck, and while they could protest, they weren't getting anywhere with the ones whose orders were to delay them. Luckily, I had orders to the contrary, and my ramscoops were able to get more than enough fuel for all of us, allowing us to start plotting jump vectors back, only to be interrupted as Alondo calls on an open channel.

"Sage, we've got an emergency situation. Not combat, or at least, I hope to heaven it's not. We've got a fleet of Oathkeepers in orbit, and they're not looking to fight, they're...just get back here with that convoy," he said, and then cut the line. Joe, Bandit and I all look at each other for a moment, before getting STAR to take us there at best speed. Once there, we find a small fleet waiting, ships of many sizes, though it still masses less than my own. The important part here was that it was mostly ground combat ships, making me very curious as to what was going on.

"Sage, we've got a problem. Poisonwood has been taken over by what we assumed was pirates, but Admiral Danforth and his group has information that says otherwise. Admiral?" says Alondo, gesturing to the man standing beside him in the transmission, meaning that they allowed a Navy officer to land. I recognize him from a few posters, the one leading the Oathkeepers. The man steps up, and then pushes a button, the display soon filling with the image of a man standing on what I remember as being Poisonwood's port station. A man with light green skin.

"An Alpha?!" I say, incredulously.

"We believe so. This photo was taken by one of our…'agents' shall we say, who's been having extended leave on Poisonwood. They claim the Alpha ships are crewed by normal looking people, but each one is commanded by one of those monsters, and they're not being subtle about their control," as he spoke, images flashed by, of labs filled with tubes that held struggling girls, and of men being injected with some glowing compound.

"We don't know why they chose now to act, but we can make some guesses. Poisonwood is self sufficient for the most part, allowing them to go for days without any contact. A few well placed bribes, and we'd probably never have even heard about this incident, at least not for months, while our two governments deal with each other. Obviously, now that we know, action must be taken," Alondo beside Danforth steps forward at this point.

"The people there contacted the Navy, obviously, but Danforth and his group were quick to bring the matter to our attention. They want safe passage through our space, and escorts to the planet itself. The Parliament, in their infinite wisdom, decided that the Navy didn't need any space combat vessels for this mission, and only allowed the Admiral to bring ground assets. Frankley, with our own lack of ground personnel after Tomek's failed invasion of Greenrock, we could use the help," he tells me.

"Agreed, Admiral, form your fleet up with mine. We'll get you to Poisonwood as fast as we can," I answer, and I can see the relief on the Admiral's face. Apparently the reputation of my office, either my own or Tomek's, made people think I was unreasonable.

"Thank you, Sage. I'll be on my flag in the hour, and then we can leave," he told me, and we jumped away the moment he was onboard, with the convoy landing as we did so. With my ramscoops, we don't stop to refuel, and take the fight right to Poisonwood's door in mere days, allowing us to get the drop on the orbiting fleet.

When we arrive, the system is a mess. Ships of every size and description flying all over, quickly strip mining asteroids, even doing some deep core stuff on one of the gas giant moons in the system. These are people trying to get the most out of the system in the shortest amount of time possible, and slag the long term consequences of it all. Worse, formations of Firebirds backed by Leviathans fly freely, and in numbers that seem impossible to have hidden, all overseeing the operation.

The moment we're in, the battle starts, and formations are forgotten, as the enemy gives us no time to do such things. STAR does his best to get us coordinated, but I can hear even his brain straining, as sunbeams smash into shields, and our force mixes completely with theirs. My own ship ends up in the center of an enemy press, with smaller ships actually diving towards us in suicide runs that force Joe and Bandit to take them out with turret fire, while larger ships pin us against the atmosphere of the planet itself.

My ship is only saved by the swift actions of the Navy boats, literally putting themselves between us and the enemy, giving our shields that moment to recover, before we blow the bastards out of space. Elsewhere, the story is far more optimistic, as my fleet makes short work of the enemy, and the Navy begins to descend the moment it's safe to do so, boats spilling out troops in powered armor like raindrops, fires and explosions rocking the cities of the planet, visible even from orbit in a case or two as the Alpha's detonate dead man charges.

An hour from our entrance into the system, I'm asked to land near Poisonwood's capital, where Command Nguyen says they found the planetary governor. Remembering her from my last visit, I quickly make port, and with two aliens at my side, Joe armed with her lightning claw weapon, and Bandit with a sword that has two blades that shine with plasma, we make our way into the city. It's as big a mess as anywhere, and one can hear the roaring of fire, and the occasional retort of guns, but we stay as far away from that as possible as we make our way to where the Commander and Governor are waiting.

"Sage, you made good time," said the Commander as we come up to them, standing beside what looks like a warehouse. The place is crawling with Navy troops, going in and out, with the signs of heavy fighting visible in scorch marks on the walls.

"I was motivated. What's happening here?" I ask, pointing to the warehouse.

"A prison for captured Alphas. We've got them under lock and key now, and are about to begin questioning them. We're hoping to get some information out of them, and the Governor wanted to be here to oversee it," he explains, and the older woman smiles at me.

"I also wanted to be the first to thank you for your assistance. I know we're not part of the Free Worlds, and yo-," just before she can finish speaking, the tone of voices coming from the warehouse changes, and suddenly the entire building seems to erupt in flames, as the soldiers outside scatter, and we dive into the nearby alleyway for some protection. The moment we stop, a shattering sound is heard, and our eyes are drawn upwards as a man, clad only in his green colored skin, rolls through a rain of glass, and then lands on the concrete to stare at us.

"Alpha!" shouts Nyguyen, dragging the governor aside, as the figure stands there. He is quite the sight, too. A massive body, made up of stringy muscles that appear quite thin, though powerful from what I'd been told. Worse, his skin isn't burned, scratched, or otherwise torn, for all that he'd just leapt through a glass window, out of an inferno. The only sign of damage, in fact, is his hair, green like the rest of him, is singed at the tips, but otherwise he looks fine, with his eyes seeming to take everything in at a glance.

He moves a heartbeat later, with Joe, Bandit, and myself moving in to stop him as he rushes for Nyguyen and the Governor as they try to run away. I have a pistol, Joe has her claw thing, and Bandit that sword. For all that, it was pretty obvious we were the ones outgunned. The green skinned man leaps at the wall, bounding into it, and then leaping towards the opposite, gaining height, even as arcs of electricity shoot from Joe's claws, jagged bolts of lightning, always just a second too slow for the way the man moves.

Bandit, seeing an opening, decides to go straight for the kill as he passes overhead, her sword going out like a lance to impale him on its blade. The man twists, somehow, in the air. I remember seeing something similar, an old video explaining how cats land on their feet, but this goes well beyond that, the man somehow creating a space for the sword to pass through, before he kicks out, planting a foot firmly on Bandit's face, and then kicking with it, sending him vaulting into the air, and sending her flailing backwards, slamming into Joe in the next moment.

That leaves me, and I fire my pistol, bolts of plasma moving easily through the air, but he's too fast, and dodges every shot, literally passing me by as if I'm not important enough to kill. Instead, he focuses on the Governor, the woman looking terrified, as Nyguyen tries to get her away. Then the Commander surprises us all, reaching out and seeming to casually throw a dumpster at the Alpha, who's unable to dodge the large projectile, which slams into him so hard, it leaves an imprint in the metal.

"Kill him!" shouts Nyguyen, and we take our shots, an arc of lightning, a tube of plasma, and a sword thrown like a javelin, all hitting him in the same instant, causing a reaction in the body that reduces it to ash second later, and letting us regroup with the Commander, Governor, and the Navy troops.

"How the hell did you do that?" I demand as we get back together, and Nyguyen grins, pulling at his normal appearing uniform to show it's actually woven of some metallic substance.

"Low-profile armor, with reinforced joints. I would have liked not to have to hurt him, but this was not the time to hold back. Perhaps we should reconvene on your ship?" he asks, and we quickly agree, the five of us, with a troop escort, quickly make our way through the city, and then up the ramp onto my Shield Beetle.

"Thank you, again, Admiral Sage. Your companions and you saved my life twice today, and the lives of everyone on my planet besides," says the governor as we sit down in the messhall, STAR's droids quickly giving everyone something to drink, and even some snacks, to help calm our nerves.

"Indeed. It was actually quite fortunate you came when you did. A minute later, and that escapee could have killed both of us. Sad that it came to that, however. We recovered most of the Alpha's equipment, and rescued many prisoners, but some are missing, and we know they had more that what was discovered," he says this sadly, sipping at his tea.

"Worse, some of the women taken are already pregnant. I find it reprehensible, but we'll have to ask them to terminate those pregnancies. The Buddha would never find such actions correct, but I must condone them, just to give this world some peace," he said, and I nod.

"Ah, so you're a pacifist. Is that why you didn't have a gun to shoot the Alpha with?" I ask, and Nyguyen chuckles a little to himself.

"Oh, not quite. I'm a martial pacifist, not a true one. I believe violence is part of nature, it happens to us all. It is killing that should be avoided. Still, I do not believe I could have restrained him without killing him, given what he showed capable of doing," he explains, and I nod again, letting the topic of conversation drift for a few minutes, before Danforth arrives. He'd already been on the scene, and informs Nyguyen of their troops pulling out, but I look to the Governor, and quickly belay that.

"As military commander of the Free Worlds, I have a proposal for you all, if you'd be willing to hear it," I tell them, and all three look at me with interest.

"As Poisonwood is currently part of the Republic, but cut off due to its position, we cannot, officially, garrison troops here. However, with the recent event fresh in our minds, I believe I can allow a small contingent of your troops, Oathkeepers, to remain here. I'll even place a few of my own personal fleet in system. Two ships, to act as space guard, and early warning, in the event the Alphas try this again," I suggest, and the Governor's eyes actually seem to water a bit at the edges, before she wipes them away.

"This would be acceptable to us on Poisonwood," she said, and turned to Danforth.

"I believe we could do so. What about supplies, though? This world has, as you've put it, been cut off. My people will not be able to resupply, once the fighting starts again," he mentions, and I just chuckle.

"Technically, I can still fly merchant colors on some of my ships, and plan on going back to the blue once my business is completed," I inform him.

"Oh, my superiors would be very interested to know just what business that is. Without your assistance, the Free Worlds would cease to be able to expand, and perhaps we can be of more use to you than them," he offers, and I'm forced to consider it for a moment, before waving a hand, bringing up some holograms of Charles and Dorien.

"These men, and their associates, abused my family for at least four generations. I want some revenge for that. I won't just abandon the Free Worlds if they're brought to justice, but I'd be willing to settle a bit closer to what you might want when it comes to peace talks," I tell them bluntly, and the two men look at each other.

"Admiral, isn't that-?" begins to ask Nyguyen, but Danforth coughs, clearing his throat, and cutting the other man off.

"I'm afraid I don't know either of these men personally, but one of them looks familiar. Perhaps we can work out something, should it come to that. For now, we have work to do, cleaning this world up. I'm going to decide what troops to leave, and we'll begin building quarters for them, while also assisting with repairs to the city. Tomorrow, we would like your escort back through Free Worlds space. Perhaps even stopping off on New Tibet for a while. Nyguyen isn't the only Buddhist amongst my forces, and they'd probably appreciate a visit to those temples, before they're cut off from us," he then rises, and the other two do as well, all three quickly leaving my ship, the Commander and Admiral getting into a visible argument as they climb into a transport.

"That wasn't suspicious at all now, was it?" I say sarcastically, wondering just what was going on, before closing the ramp up. The next day, with most of the fires out, and my ships being sent out to get supplies, we've got much of the world at least looking livable again, before the fleet of troop transports and my own leave the system behind, on our way to New Tibet once more.


	56. Breeding Alliances

Landing back on New Tibet, I'm met at the spaceport by the sight of the Dreadnaughts, launching back out, and Alondo waiting for me. I give him a full description of the battle, including my decision to allow a stationing of Navy troops on the world, as well as leaving two of my own ships in orbit. He sighs at that, sipping at a drink in his hand, but then just shakes his head.

"They're your forces, not ours, so I won't object too heavily. Still, you should have run this decision by us, if not the Senate, before you agreed to it," he informs me. I don't argue the point, as we discuss how the Alpha's got into the system, through Free Worlds space, and other such things. In the end, we turn to other topics, however, and he's soon got a galactic map on display, with one of the pirate worlds highlighted on it.

"Well, with that done, we've got other business to attend to now. Bloodsea, the smallest of the remaining worlds not aligned with us here in the south, has agreed to meet with me. Given there's only a few scattered settlements, a couple of thousand people at most, I'm hoping they'll see they have a lot to gain by joining with us, rather than resisting, especially after that whole thing on Poisonwood," he tells me, and I quickly agree, with the two of us launching soon afterwards, making our way to the out of the way world.

We arrive at Bloodsea with our force, and they immediately jump to the conclusion that we're there to invade, and begin taking potshots at us with targeting lasers, tiny spot lights that barely blip on our shields. Alondo has to spend the better part of an hour talking them down, and after all that, they agree to meet, at the planet's one spaceport, where I soon find my personal ship sinking into muck, with the a storm turning the sandy beach they'd asked me to land at into a pit. Still, they're waiting there for us, a group of men and women who look barely above tribal levels of tech, even inviting us into a tent that was obviously made of tanned animal skins.

Our talks with them are slow at first, despite all the work Alondo had already put in, but it soon becomes apparent what they want. They're tired of living like they do, with barely any tech. Most had visited other worlds, and despite the original settlers desiring communion with nature, their descendents want the amenities that come with modern civilization. Namely a real spaceport, with actual landing pads and the like, and a small surrounding town, where those of their people who wish it can live out of nature's wrath. Their demands on the table, they leave us alone, and Alondo turns to me.

"What do you think?" he asks, at last, and I consider the situation. Bloodsea is so primitive that they don't have much in the way of defenses. Heck, it was why the pirates 'recruited' here for easy labor. We'd need to build defenses more than anything else. As it was, it might have been cheaper just to move everyone to a better world. Yet, I knew most wouldn't want to go, and they'd fight us tooth and nail to stay in their home. I admired that spirit.

"We do it. Building a spaceport, with some regular warships for protection, should help this planet get out from under the thumb of the pirates. After that, we'll let them decide how to live their lives," I say, and Alondo agrees.

"It won't be easy, however. Just getting the supplies here isn't enough. The moment they hear about it, every two bit pirate clan is going to be coming here to claim this world as the 'legitimate' authority. Probably try to get our workers to build him some kind of great fortress instead of a spaceport," he responds, and I just motion towards the window, and my fleet floating in space outside. That settled, we quickly arrange for the supplies and workers we need to be assembled by Freya at Zug. I send a few of my ships to retrieve them, and we spend the next two weeks fending off pirates who arrive piecemeal, and are chewed up by my fleet, none of them bringing nearly the firepower to take us on.

Two Behemoth class freighters, massive hulls almost as large as the Dreadnaughts, come in system, escorted by my forces, and quickly land. One of the big ships seems to unfold itself into a makeshift platform, out of which dozens of worker drones fly. In an hour, the foundations of a new port are being laid. The people of Bloodsea thank us, and then Alondo tells me to go pickup Freya. The four of us, including JJ, need to get together on Dancer. I agree, letting one of my ships take him to the system, while I proceed to go get the fair lady, arriving to find her already packed up and ready, almost beaming at me, as she points out a Dreadnaught, flying overhead.

"We've got the production line started. Only one of those big boys a week, but considering their size, that's fantastic. Given a few months, we'll actually outgun the Navy, and with you on our side, we've really got a fighting chance, if it comes down to it," she tells me as she climbs aboard.

"Excellent work. Always nice to have a genius engineer on your side, I suppose," I tell her, and she smiles as me.

"Flatterer. Though I'll admit, it was nice to be able to tackle problems that have real solutions, rather than all this political stuff. Speaking of, once we arrive on Dancer, we'll be taking JJ over to Albatross, he'll be handling the final bits of negotiations with them," she informs me, and I'm taken aback at the words.

"Isn't Alondo the diplomat? I thought he did that, while JJ was the bureaucrat?" I ask, while helping her stow her things.

"Heh, don't let JJ hear you say that. He'd call himself a problem solver. Still, you're not wrong. But JJ's a warrior to those people, thanks to his taking part in our war operations in the systems there. They see him as strong, brave, and most importantly to them, straight," she tells me, and I'm again forced to start a bit.

"Wait, what?" I say, and she chuckles again, offering me a seat on her bed, as she pulls out a picture from her pocket.

"JJ's a family man, wife, kids, the whole shebang. Alondo's one too, married, and even has an adopted kid, but he's got a husband, rather than a wife," she tells me, passing me a picture, that shows Alondo with a man I don't recognize, and a child, girl by the look of her.

"And that's a problem?" I ask, and she just shakes her head.

"Not to most of us, but some worlds are very traditional. Albatross is one of them. I hear it's nothing really against them, not like some places, it's just, they find people like Alondo to be wastes of breeding stock. Remember, they're one the edge of human space. Population growth is not just nice, it's a necessity, so someone who can't or won't breed is a liability, as far as they're concerned," she explains, and I nod, understanding. It made sense too, even if it was kind of closed minded about such things. Still, it didn't matter much, as we launch again.

Landing on Dancer a few days later, JJ meets us at the ramp, looking somewhat exhausted. His eyes are drooping, his posture is slouched, and he barely responds until we get half a pot of coffee in him. Even then, it takes him a while to actually perk up. Apparently, the Navy had been sending scouts out from the base on New Iceland, where I'd dropped off the Admiral after the big battle. He kept expecting her to attack, sending her forces to assault them at any moment, and it had him a little on edge.

"No worries. I've got this system set as the rally point for our Dreadnaughts. We'll assemble them here, to hold off any major pushes into our territory. I'll handle that, while you boys handle Albatross," she tells us, and then leaves the ship.

"Ah, to have that woman's strength. I find it almost crushing to bear the weight of war on my shoulders," he tells me as we make our way to the bridge, and then he quickly fills me in on Albatross as a world. A supposed 'commune' world, it was supposed to be completely peaceful, but that meant they'd basically been defenseless against this or that pirate lord who claimed the system as his base. In theory, that made them the perfect candidate for our protection, hopefully welcoming us with open arms. In practice, it tended to mean that they saw any possible 'liberators' as just more oppressors.

The world itself is better than Bloodsea, at least. A few defenses activate, though not a one fires as we descend into the atmosphere. The elders of the planet, some very old looking men, at least one probably in his second century of life, agree to meet only in the dead of night, in an out of the way warehouse. They are quick to namedrop Ryk Bartlett as the source of their fears, a local boss who'd proven time and again to be not only ruthless and cunning, but also very good when it came to fighting.

"That's why we're here. We want to free this world from those sorts of people. We offer you the same representation as any other in the Senate, not just a simple advocate like the Parliament was," he says, explaining that they'd really be leaders here, not just in name while whatever pirate lord actually ruled. They'd have to uphold the laws of the Free Worlds, and would be taxed as any world was, but otherwise, they'd still be in charge, and free to do what they chose. The oldest of them looked me in the eye, rather than JJ.

"And what, young man, makes you folks different from those pirates? Demanding tribute in return for protection? Hmm?" he says, pointing a cane at me.

"We have a Senate, representatives from every world in the Free Worlds. You'll have a voice in that body, and able to affect the changes you feel best supports your people," you tell him, and he hrumphs quite deeply, for a spindly old man.

"Oh? And what of this Council? The two of you are on it, I know. You make all the decisions, and the Senate is just a figurehead you allow to play at politics, while you rule in all but name. That's not a true democracy" he accuses, but before I can respond, the man next to him places his hand on the cane and lowers it.

"Still the best deal we've ever been offered. Bartlett certainly doesn't give us even a whisper under his 'Guidance'. I for one, say we give them a chance. If you can take out Bartlett, we'll join you," he says, and the others quickly descend into arguing, until finally the oldest one calls them to order with his cane thumping on the table. They fall silent as he decides to extend that offer from his fellow, telling me to destroy Bartlett's flagship, the Dread, and if I can do that, they'll join the Free Worlds, at least on a temporary basis.

"Better than I expected, honestly. One pirate lord to dispatch, and we gain a new world. Considering what you've already done, I'm almost positive this will be easy," says JJ, as we launch again, quickly punching in the coordinates where the Dread is supposedly going to be in the Orvala system. I don't argue either. Considering the fleets I'd taken on, a pirate ship would actually be pretty tame. I did knock on some virtual wood, however, as we jumped out, hoping that we wouldn't be eating our words.

Luck was with us, however, as Bartlett's 'fleet' was a single Bastion, his beloved Dread, with a small forces of Sparrows and Furies. A threat to any merchant ship, not even a blip to a three hundred ship fleet with more weapons than pilots. I offer Ryk the chance to surrender, but when he responds by trying to ram my ship, I'm forced to carve a large hole into his vessel, that then explodes as its core destabilizes, leaving nothing but an expanding cloud as we proceed back to Albatross, a few prisoners in tow.

We release the people, mostly conscripts according to them, back onto Albatross itself, where they're greeted with an almost party like atmosphere. Everyone celebrates, typically by bashing or burning effigies of Bartlett. In the middle of the reverie, the elders meet JJ and myself, agreeing to abide by the deal, on a 'trial' basis for now, but they look younger now, as if a great weight has been lifted from their shoulders, as they soon join in the merriment. JJ and I leave with their signed agreement, and make our way back to my ship, finding a transmission waiting for me, that I take in my quarters.

"Councilor Sage, I'm contacting you to thank you, again, for you swift assistance in the Poisonwood matter a few weeks ago," began Admiral Danforth, and I braced myself, an opening like that was clearly ramping up to some very, very bad news.

"I don't have time to make this soft, so I'll be blunt. Commander Nyguyen was assassinated recently. Openly, a shot right through the head with a plasma pistol, like the one you yourself used to kill the Alpha. There's little doubt in my mind that this was a revenge killing, and I'm certain you'll be targetted by the killers as well," as he spoke, I felt a weight settle in the pit of my stomach, remembering the Alpha. He was good, better than I could have taken. Heck, it was four of us against him, with weapons while he was unarmed, and for all that, he would have killed us.

"I'm sorry to be so short, but my duties call me, and I must return to them. I just wanted you to be careful out there. You're a good man, and those are hard to find in the darkness of space. Admiral Danforth, Leader of the Oathkeeprs, out," and with that, the transmission cut, leaving me alone with my thoughts for a few minutes, before I gather my courage. It's just another threat on my life. Not like those are rare for me, of late especially. Thinking that, I don't know whether I'm feeling emboldened or depressed, but either way, I leave my quarters for the bridge, and set course for Dancer.


	57. It All Comes Tumbling Down

Landing proved difficult, as Dreadnaughts now line the spaceways around Dancer. Eight of the hulking ships float in orbit, their mass blotting out the sun and casting visible shadows on the world below. Impressive as that is, Cruisers are about the same size, if a bit less well armed, and the Navy still has a lot more of them than we have Dreadnaughts, and while Geminus is still unuseable as a Shipyard, rumor was going around that the Parliament had struck a deal with Betelgeuse and they'd be churning out ships for the Navy.

Once we finally get a berth, the familiar sight of someone waiting for us comes into focus, as Freya is waiting on the landing pad, giving orders into a comm even as my Shield Beetle lands only a few feet from her. Luckily, by the time we exit the ship, whatever business she was dealing with is over, and the fact that she's smiling tells me the news she had was at least as good as ours.

"So, you guys took out a Pirate named Bartlett, correct?" she asks.

"We did. The elders on Albatross required it," said JJ as he joined us.

"Just what I wanted to hear," she said, and shoved us back into my ship, quickly pulling up a hologram of the galactic area we were in, zooming it into two nearby worlds, Rand which I'd helped with terraforming troubles a few months back, and Oblivion. Both were currently highlighted as being Republic, but Freya changed them to Free Worlds colors, and turned to us.

"Ryk and his fleet were terrors around here, ones the Navy never quite got around to rooting out like that should have, so most of the locals are willing to flip to our side in the war. They feel we'd at least try to protect them, and while Alondo and I are only in preliminary negotiations, it shouldn't be too hard, seeing as they approached us. In addition, several other worlds in the area are leaning towards us now. A real coup if I must say," she said excitedly, and turned to us, finding that JJ and I weren't looking quite so happy as she was.

"What? Is there something I'm missing?" she asked, and I stepped forward, using a small interface to being displaying our forces, and where they were, in relation to the worlds we now controlled.

"It's not that it's not good, heck, it would be great if this news came once we had a few more of those Dreadnaughts. Right now, though? We don't really have the forces to garrison every world out there, and it really spreads our lines thin," I said, and JJ nodded.

"Not to mention we've got Albatross and Bloodsea to enter as well. That's almost ten worlds in a matter of months. Getting them joined is only half the problem. Still, with those assets on our side, the resource equation flips in our favor," he said, and brought up his own terminal, quickly overlaying economic displays on the galactic map. While the Republic would, nominally, control more resources, most of those were actually in the Deep and Syndicate, neither of which would likely help out, if push came to shove.

"So, we can either deny them, and probably lose the chance forever, or extend our lines now. A delicate choice," she admitted, her and Alondo probably only having thought in terms of territory when they'd begun talking with the leaders of the two new worlds.

"Hmm, delicate, yes, but long term, gaining those worlds is the most beneficial. We would need to move against the New Iceland base sooner, rather than later, however. Those troops there could be used to strike at almost any point in our line. Do we know if the Navy has gotten wind of this transfer of planets yet?" asked JJ, and Freya shook her head.

"If they knew about this, they'd have a lot more people in those places. A few carriers at Rand, a small battlegroup at Oblivion, nothing more. We have to strike now, however, otherwise they'll reinforce their positions there, and we'll never be able to take them," she says bluntly, and I nod, doing a few quick calculations in my head, before sighing.

"We need the Dreadnaughts where they're at, defending here and New Tibet especially. My fleet will have to take this mission, but it's the best option of the two. If I hit them hard enough, and fast enough, we can take the Navy forces out now, and maybe get them to pull back to New Iceland, where we can stage a big assault. If that works out in our favor, the Republic is done in this section of space, and they'll either need to surrender, or risk thinning their own lines way too much," I said, and the others went over my work for a few minutes.

"Okay, this will work. Freya and I should join you. The three of us are the majority of the Council at this point, so we can react instantly when needed, and Alondo can direct the fleet from here," says Freya, and we quickly agree. She spends a moment informing Alondo of the decision, and in a few minutes, we're in space again, the blue fire of jump consuming my ships. Before long we're in the Zeta Aquilae system, Rand sporting several orbiting carriers that look prepared for battle, right up until the point they jumped out, leaving the system to us.

"Suspicious," I said simply, as we landed quickly. I saw a few familiar faces as the papers were signed, and we got to work changing the flags at the port for Rand, while other systems were reporting similar occurrences. The Navy was pulling back, but New Iceland seemed to be no more crowded than before. For a while, we hope that means the Navy was called to keep the Dirt Belt from defecting, as the mining worlds here were far less vital to the Republic's survival. Of course, after three days of waiting, we're told otherwise.

"Dancer, New Portland, and a half a dozen other worlds were just hit, hard," said Alondo's voice over the comm, a fuzzy image of the man himself barely coming through.

"How? Those fleets were sizable enough to defend them, and we already had some ground facilities built. No way the Navy moved anything there that quickly," I protested, and Alondo could only shrug, as he transmitted the tactical data he'd received.

"I don't know how they did it without us hearing about it, but they did. The bulk of the forces were from the Sixth, Eighth, and Third fleets. Those are ones used to defend the Paradise worlds themselves. No way we wouldn't have heard of them moving, but there's no denying they did it somehow. They hit us hard, and fast. The Dreadnaughts did their best, but against the numbers they were facing, it wasn't even a challenge," he told us as the scenes played out, cruisers, dozens of them, swarming over systems they had no right to be in, and 'liberating' them from the rebel Free Worlds organization.

"We got a lot of assets out, but they've mostly had to fly back to the outer edge of the Rim, with a few heading to Tarazed when that got cut off. Even then, about half of them are still damaged, and we just don't have the resources to repair them right now," he said, and then the transmission cut off, as the relay he was using was either taken by the Navy, or more likely just destroyed, leaving us with concerned looks as we turned to each other.

"They've skewered our expansion efforts. Even if we still had our fleets, there's no way we can get through forces like that, and worse yet, we're cut off from the Free Worlds now. This is just about as bad as I thought it could be," said JJ as he slumped into a chair beside us. My mind races as I bring up the map, and quickly eyeball where our forces are, and then make a decision.

"I'll go to Tarazed. My fleet can get there quickly, and I'll rally the forces there for a big push. If we can break their lines anywhere, we'll be able to regroup at New Tibet, and try to hold that system for now," I tell them, and they both look at each other, before turning to me.

"What about us? Or the new worlds? We've got to find some way to help these people," said Freya, and I shake my head.

"You two should take one of my ships and hightail it to where Alondo is. You're the ones in charge of the Free Worlds, and if you two, and I, get caught, we'll have a hell of a time getting more leadership together in time to fend off more assaults. As for the worlds, we tell them not to resist, for now. We're not running away, we're withdrawing, and once we have a plan, we're coming back. We aren't abandoning them, just making sure we're in a position to help them out when everything's said and done," I tell her, and they both seem to consider this for a moment, before Freya shakes her head.

"No, we're going with you. The Senate should have taken over for us by now, and Alondo's there to keep them moving. I refuse to abandon you now. If this goes south, we're going down with you," she declares, and JJ nods in affirmation. Not really wanting to argue the point, especially after I see the determined look on their faces, I merely set course, taking us to Wayfarer ones again.


	58. Manipulation

Arriving in the Tarazed system, we're greeted by a sight that is pitiful to behold. The ships of the Free Worlds, massive Dreadnaughts, small fighters, and everything in between, but all in various stages of disrepair. The people of Wayfarer were doing their best to fix up the ships they could, but it would be the work of months to fully repair this collection of floating junk piles, and we would only have a few weeks at best before the Navy decided to descend on this system like locusts.

Realizing how hopeless the idea of breaking the blockade with the ragged group we had on hand, I suggest trying to find another contact relay with the other side, maybe at Bourne or Skymoot, or something, where we might get some reinforcements, perhaps get a two pronged assault going. A few hours later, as Freya is helping direct the repair efforts, and JJ is using all his skills at management to buy more supplies from the Tarazed Corporation, a young looking officer approaches the berth where my ship is resting.

"Sirs, Ma'am, we have a transmission from New Tibet. An emergency situation has arisen that needs your attention," he says with a salute, and we look at each other.

"Does the Navy have even more forces to throw at us? How? This is more than half the remaining fleets, even counting the Oathkeepers," complains JJ, but the officer quickly shakes his head.

"It's not the Navy, sir. In fact, the Navy is trying to assist our forces. A small force of Navy ships entered the system, asking for Councilor Sage by name, and the Syndicate attacked a few hours after. There's a big battle going on right now," he said, and that made all of us freeze. What in the hell was going on here? That was my thought anyway, as we rushed back to the bridge, and quickly opened a channel, which slowly resolved out of static to a face I knew all too well.

"You're looking well, Sage, considering the life you've been leading these last few years," said Darien Fawkes, one of the Old Men, who, despite his youthful appearance, was older than I was. Around him, one could see men in uniforms, and others in monk robes, as the room they were in periodically shook, dust and debris falling in small showers from the ceiling.

"Darien, what in the world do you want?" I asked without thinking, and he actually broke out in a very genuine looking smile, before motioning for the person holding the transmission device to point it at someone nearby. When it did, we were all three shocked to see Katya, in what looked like a Navy uniform, shouting orders at those around her, getting braces placed against the walls. After a moment of that view, we shifted back to Darien's face.

"Well, my department, Navy Intelligence just in case you're curious, has finished our interrogation of Ms. Reynolds here, and we've come to the conclusion that she's innocent of all charges. What's more, we have evidence that the Syndicate was in fact behind the bombings of the Shipyards on Geminus and the Stock Exchange at Martini that is the cause of so much friction between the Republic and the Free Worlds," he said, and once again we're shocked into silence by his casual declaration of such facts.

"Now, now, before you dismiss me out of hand, I want you to know, I have real proof of what I'm talking about. Including samples of the fissile materials, casings from the original detonation devices, and even the name and site of the initial testing blasts on Mutiny, in the Gienah system. More than enough to convince those blowhards in the Parliament of the innocence of the Free Worlds, and the guilt of the Syndicate," he told us, and I quickly shot to my feet, pointing an accusing finger at him.

"And just how the hell do you have those? NavInt is good, but if you could get those so easy, why would it take all these years?" I demand, and Darien chuckles again.

"Oh, that's because I helped with the tests, and even picked the targets for our little bombs, after you ran off and forced us to move up the schedule. I'd explain more, but, I want you to come get me, so I'll be waiting here, with your friend. She's in no more danger than myself, but I'm not exactly safe," he said, and then cut the transmission before we could ask anymore, leaving us to stew for several minutes as we digested the information. JJ and Freya kept looking at each other, and then acting like they were about to say something, before falling silent again, while I know I was just fuming, with Joe and Bandit begging off everyone who tried to contact us.

"You know, we have to go rescue him, right?" said Freya at last, and I almost snapped at her, both because it would be going to save a man who was everything I'd grown up hating for two decades and change of my life, and because she was right. Katya was there, and I wanted to rescue her, since I was the one who'd left her to get captured. Worse, we were probably the only fleet that could get there in time to assist.

"We'd be leaving these men here to die. No way the Navy wouldn't take this system while we're gone. Going to save him, and Katya, would be costing everyone we left here their lives," said JJ plainly, and it was Freya's turn to look indignant, at least until she considered his words. I just waved it off as I began plotting a jump route.

"All forces of the Free Worlds, this is Admiral Sage. We've got a lead on who really planted the bombs that started this whole war. I'm sorry to say, it's not going to be easy getting that evidence, or confirming it, but we've got to try. As such, I'm ordering you, if the Navy enters the system, to surrender. As prisoners of war, you'll be protected, and if worse comes to worse, we will rescue you. While you keep them busy here, my fleet will be going to rescue Councilor Katerina, and hopefully end this war in short order. I'm sorry, but it's the only option we have left," I tell them, and then direct the two of them to their seats.

They strap in without a word as we launch off, leaving behind men and women, many of whom shout encouragements at us, despite, or perhaps because of the situation we're leaving them in. I try not to think about it at all as I quickly take us through system after system, pushing the jump drives to their limit, and actually feeling the shudder as they strain to meet the demand I'm putting on them. With some luck, my fleet arrives in New Tibet orbit a few days later to find the battle still raging.

It was winding down, true, but it was still going on, as a formation made up of two Dreadnaught, four cruisers, and several smaller support ships did their best to hold off the Syndicate vessel. This was made harder by the ships they were facing being so different than what one would expect. The hulls were Syndicate normal, Protectors backed up by Quicksilvers, Mantas, and Splinters, but the weapons they fired were of such variety that one would have been hard pressed to identify them all.

Some fired those new Electron Beam weapons the Navy was using. Some wielded Heavy Plasma Turrets, those things Barmy Edwards designed and had me test. Others used what was obviously Hai Ion Cannons and Tracker missiles, and still more used what I guessed were Korath weapons, red beams pushing enemies away while smaller, yellow stars shot out to tear the offending craft apart. And on, and on, with it seeming like no two ships were using the same arms.

Regardless of that, the force of Free World and Navy ships held their own. Hulks of the two fleets littered the skies, and many of the remaining vessels on the defenders side were showing clear signs of battle damage, while the planet they were protecting sported at least a half a dozen smoking craters I could see from where I was, positions STAR helpfully informed me the Free Worlds had been building ground defenses at. Despite that, it was obvious that not one Syndicate vessel had set foot on the planet.

We made sure they never would, as my fleet instantly joined the fight. Wedges of ships blew through the Syndicate line, their weapons effective, but their numbers too depleted to make real use of it. I ordered my crews to disable, rather than destroy our foes, but sadly, the Syndicate ships were equipped so that when their cores went down, the ship exploded, violently, often damaging nearby friends, which only made our job easier, and within the hour, the Syndicate forces were gone, allowing me to finally land and demand answers.


	59. Choices

By the time I find a place to land, another Navy ship has entered the system, this one flying some unusual colors, and asking to land with me. The ship itself is a small scout, probably at best a half a dozen crew, if that, and STAR says the sensors are telling him there's only one person aboard. I decide to allow them to land, but order my ships in orbit to keep weapons trained on it. That ship had to have been waiting for the battle to end to come in when they did, which could make this some kind of trick.

Still, we land to find the monastery where the transmission had come from a smoking ruin. Obviously not from orbital fire either, as the place itself is not a crater, but instead by some invasion force that had apparently snuck in. Bodies are everywhere, most burned beyond recognition, at least until I walk up to one and tug at it, the dust and ash falling away to reveal green skin beneath. Shocked, I drop it instantly, and the impact reveals another corpse, of similar make beneath it, but in a way that makes it look like the two killed each other.

"Alphas fighting Alphas? Is there any record of that?" I ask, and Freya quickly shakes her head, before turning to one of STAR's android bodies, that freezes as it links to the network, but then shakes its head as well. While we're still digesting that tidbit of information, the woman from the scout ship finally makes her way out, and we turn to find she's a unique looking individual. Dressed in black, with skin of almost pitch black herself, she moves like a dancer, her feet barely seeming to touch the ground, as shining black orbs take in everything around her.

"Councilor Sage, I would say it's a pleasure to meet you, but I'm afraid it's not, given the circumstances," she says, not bothering to offer her hand as she walks right past me to look at the bodies. As she does, I can see the white of her eyes is still there, but covered by what appears to be some kind of markings. STAR helpfully whispers that their scleric tattooes, Celtic in origin, and very intricate. Even with today's tools, they aren't the sort of thing one simply decides to get branded on their eyeballs.

"Hmm, yes, so the rumors were true," she said, kicking at a beam, a huge oaken thing that would have taken a team of men to move, and she just casually knocks it aside, revealing a trap door that's obviously been reinforced by metal, as it clangs when she touches it.

"Excuse me, you know my name, but I would feel better about this if you'd offer your own," I tell her, and she seems startled for a moment, before smiling warmly at me.

"Of course, I apologize. My name is Raven. Just that, and I'm, as you might guess, with NavInt. Director Fawkes vanished a few weeks ago, and I was asked to track him down. Of course, it surprised all of us when he announced on an open channel where he was," she says, and then points at the trapdoor with two fingers. I wonder what it is she's doing for a moment, before I see a distortion in the air at the tips, and there's a loud banging sound as a wave of force seems to shoot from her body, smashing into the trapdoor, and blowing it open.

"Hmm, a bit weaker than I expected," she said, and then leapt down into the darkness. Looking at my companions, JJ, Freya, Bandit, Joe, and a STAR android, I then turn back to the opening, and follow, finding it leads to a small space, that leads to a tunnel. Drawing my weapon, I quickly rush after Raven. She seems to know where she's going, despite this being a hidden tunnel system, and soon afterwards we emerge into a familiar looking space, where several exhausted looking monks, Katya, Darien, and a few Alphas are all waiting for us.

"Alphas!" shouts Freya, and points her pistol at them. JJ does much the same, a few moments later than her, and soon I'm forced to do so as well, as the Alphas drop into fighting stances, ready to throw down, despite the confined setting. Darien, behind them, rolls his eyes contemptuously, and steps forward.

"Everyone, 'stop'," he says, the last word rattling around inside my brain like a ping pong ball, and keeping me from moving. I can't even turn my head, but by the sounds, the others are equally frozen, as are the Alphas, and everyone else, save for Raven, who scoffs, and walks forward.

"So, this is what you've been reduced to, Director? A few protectors, and a basement? I always thought you had more planning skill than this," she says, and then waves her hand, somehow unfreezing us, so we all jerk forward. Before anyone can do anything, I put my hand on Freya and JJ's weapons, motioning for Joe and Bandit to lower their's as well. The two Alphas, seeing the threat pass, return to a resting position, as Katya, holding a hand to her head, groans.

"Gods, that sucks," she says, walking over to us, and giving out hugs to myself, Freya, and JJ.

"You three have no idea how good it is to see you," she tells you as she finally steps back, and then gestures towards Darien, who is engaged in what is probably some kind of psychic conversation with Raven, given the way their staring at each other.

"Before you ask, yes, they're mentalists. Most of NavInt apparently is. This Darien guy can do some mind tricks, and he selects people with the potential to do the same. Apparently, he's quite good at it, and he's got some Alphas under his thrall. No idea how, but he's good at picking apart a brain, so maybe he did something to them," she says, and we nod, as we turn to the pair, who just finished their conversation apparently, as they turn to us at the same moment.

"Nothing quite so simple, Ms. Reynolds. The Alphas are with me, and aid me because of what they are, and more importantly, what I am," he says cryptically, and then motions at a chair with his hand. The chair, knocked over at some point, rights itself, and he sits down in it, the two Alphas quickly moving to his sides, assuming ready positions just in case there's more threats of violence. Mind, I was thinking more in the orbital bombardment kind, but I control myself for now, taking a chair when it's offered.

"I assume you have many questions for me, and seeing as you and I have quite the history, I'll answer your's first, Sage," he tells us.

"First question, what's going on? Second question, where's the proof you offered? Third question, why the hell shouldn't I call down the thunder on your head right now for everything you put my family through, and probably Katya too, given her condition," I respond without even a moment's thought, and he chuckles again, lacing his hands together as he puts his chin on them, and then leans forward.

"Ah, just like Elizabeth, and all your line. Still, they're good questions I suppose. In order then. First, Charles has gone a bit crazy. Our plans are domination, to control humanity, for its own good, though I doubt you'll take my word for it. Your interference has caused no small amount of restructuring in our designs, and now Charles plans on resetting the board, by bombing Earth, and several other worlds, back to the stone age, and blaming it on the Free Worlds. He believes it would allow us to take control in the confusion. I'm more than certain that we'd only be further dividing humanity, at a time when that simply cannot be allowed," he said this casually, as if he wasn't just admitting to us that he'd had a hand in the largest attacks in human space in centuries, and had started a war that had claimed far, far too many lives.

"Second, the proof is in a small cavern about fifteen miles away. Our good monk friends offered it as a hiding place. Should we have died, you would have likely found the materials through even a cursory search of the area. As we did survive, I'm sure they'll be willing to show exactly where the items are hidden, and you may use them to exonerate the Free Worlds, and hopefully end this conflict," the monks beside him nodded, silently telling us his words were true, as he finally leaned back in his chair.

"As for that third question, well, I'm not doubting your will to kill me, given Bernard, Claire, and even Hobbes' deaths, but I've got something they didn't. I'm not going to fight you anymore, and I don't think you're a cold blooded killer. You'll take a life in the heat of battle, but you don't do murder," he said, and then used his powers to pull my pistol out of its holster. My hand went to it instinctively, grabbing it without thinking, and only at that moment did I realize the barrel was pressed right up against his forehead, waiting for me to pull the trigger and end it.

"If I'm wrong, do so now. It won't cost you much. You have the evidence, and after what you've just heard, you can probably oust Charles and those he controls from power in the Syndicate. All you'll lose is the truth of everything that's been going on in this galaxy. As a Sage, exploring those sorts of horizons is your duty, is it not?" he asked, and my hand shook a little as he released his grip, letting me have my gun back. For a moment, just a moment, I squeezed at the finger, the chamber filling with super heated plasma as it prepared to fire, and I looked into those eyes.

I wanted to shoot, to blow his brains out before he used them on my friends again. I looked over at Katya, and I saw a woman who'd been violated. Her face was made of hard stone, and her body under than uniform looked positively scrawny. She'd survived whatever Darien and NavInt had done to her, but it hasn't been a pleasant experience. Worse for all that he knew she was innocent. My hand flexed, everyone tensed, and I took in a deep breath, letting every emotion fall away, leaving me with one moment of clarity.


	60. History Lesson: Alpha

I lowered the gun. The act of killing Darien, as much as it would please me to no end, wouldn't undo what had happened. Worse, he was right. I needed to know what all this was about. There were things going on that just made no sense, actions he and the others had taken, heck, his own admission of being like the Alphas alone needed to be looked into, and if he died, those answers would die with him. So I slowly let the gun fall to my side, and stared right into his eye. There wasn't happiness there that he'd been spared, but acceptance, like he'd been hoping I would end it.

I do hit him, of course. My anger is such that violence against him is necessary or I'd go insane. It's a good hit too. Sudden enough that he doesn't see it coming, but with enough force behind it, an uppercut, that I actually lift him off the ground a bit, and send him sprawling backwards. Sadly, rather than landing on the dirt floor, he's caught by one of the Alphas, the other moving to get between me and him. I don't bother with either, shaking my hand to get feeling back into it, and then regretting that, as it felt like I'd at least strained, if not broken, my wrist.

"Feeling better?" asked Joe as I walked over to stand with them, and I nod, as we watch Darien slowly rise back to a standing position, rubbing his jaw, moving it from side to side for a moment, before chattering his teeth, and finally turning to us.

"Not bad, Sage. Elizabeth would have broken my jaw doing that, but still, not bad," he says, as he retakes his seat, and soon we're all seated, in a large circle.

"Now then, as Mr. Sage has been allowed his questions, I suppose it would only be fair to field questions from the rest of you. Do you have anything you'd like to know?" he asked, and the others start talking all at once, at least until he raises a hand, and points, towards Raven.

"As I think I know what you're going to ask, you first, my dear," he tells her, and she looks ready to hit him for a moment, before standing.

"You've been head of NavInt for...as long as there's been a NavInt. We all know you're some kind of immortal freak, but the assumption has always been mechanical, not biological. Still, we've never questioned it, because you've always seemed to have the best interest of the Republic at heart. What changed?" she demanded, and Darien looked at me, and then back at her, before answering.

"I'm afraid that's probably going to be wrapped up in other questions, so for now, I'll just say, Mr. Sage's escape from New Boston caused a need to accelerate plans that should have been more peaceful in nature," he told her.

"You're saying me leaving is why you had to bomb the Shipyard and Stock Exchange?" I said, as if he'd just accused me of the acts myself.

"Yes, actually. Had you stayed put, the Free Worlds would have broken away, forcing the Parliament to devote resources to the southern border with them. Eventually, that would have lead to investments in the Deep for better weapons, which would have eventually allowed us to force the Free Worlds back into line, while also using the shakeup itself to install ourselves as the heads of all human space in one swoop, and given us the means to fight our real battles," he said simply, and then pointed to Freya next.

"What real battle? What are you? Not an Alpha, but obviously not human either," she asked, looking him up and down, and he chuckled again.

"Oh, the Alphas and myself are quite human, Ms. Winters. We are the best of what humans can be, given the right motivation. Though as the first part ties into the rest of my tale, I'll save it for later. For my name, I'm what's called an Omega, the final part of the project, of which the Alphas were the start," he explains, and before she can say anything else, he moves onto JJ, who stares daggers at him for a moment.

"You're helping us now, because you say you've grown squeamish for what your ally, this Charles, is planning. What was his plan, however? You say he was going to blame us for attacks on Earth and the Paradise worlds, but the Free Worlds doesn't have enough capacity to break through the fleets. How was he going to get them to think we did it?" he asked.

"Honestly? I'm not sure. I only found out about his plan a short while after the fleets had been redepoloyed. I had figured the idea was to simply weaken the Free Worlds enough to get them to back down for the moment, maybe set the war to simmer for a while longer, with the Republic in the superior position again. When I discovered several weapons being smuggled into Earth's spaceport, I realized he had other ideas, and his Alphas were still willing to take my orders. It wasn't long before I discovered the gist of the plan, and decided to get out," he explained, and JJ scratched at his chin for a moment, before sitting back down.

"Hmm, well then, that seems to be all the immediate questions, at least about our situation. That leaves me to answer the one thing I'm sure you're asking yourself. Where do I come from, right?" he asked, and we didn't respond, just stared at him, caused Darien to chuckle again.

"That means it's my turn to ask you people a question. Namely, what do you know about the twenty-third century?" he asked, and that brought us up short as we all thought it over.

"The invention of the hyperdrive. The beginnings of Diaspora. The formation of the first Parliament. That's about it though," said Raven after a few seconds, and Darien nodded.

"Very correct. Though the first is the most important. The hyperdrive was invented in the twenty-three-hundreds A.D. by a woman of some renown within the scientific community. Of course, it was a clunky, energy inefficient model, with barely the capacity for a single jump, but it was a hyperdrive. Do you know what else it was, however?" he asked, and when we didn't immediately answer, he popped up onto his chair.

"It was slow. Modern drives all take a day or so to 'actuallize' the jump, so that a trip, even going both ways, is only two or so days, give or take some hours. Those first models, however, weren't quite so fast. Heck, at first, the people of Sol believed using the thing was a deathtrap, as the first ship equipped with on seemingly vanished, killing its crew of thousands that it required to run. It was, therefore, rather shocking when it popped up half a decade later, the people on board having experienced barely a year in between leaving and returning," as he spoke, STAR, who had said nothing up until now, held out a hand, and quickly showed articles in the news of the events he was talking about, confirming his story via hologram,

"So, it was slow, what's that got to do with anything?" asked JJ, and Darien smiled at him.

"Everything, my good man. It meant that people weren't so keen on leaving, especially since communications between systems were non-existent, so only the brave, the foolish, or the troubled tended to make the leap into the stars, despite the overcrowding in Sol that was growing worse every year. But it also meant that colonies, once sent off, were cut off from everyone else, allowing those ships to essentially be independent of any oversight," as he spoke he rose up, and began to gesture, as if he were some figure in a play, delivering a grand speech.

"A century would pass during this time, as people began to settle worlds that had no life on them that seemed growing towards intelligence. Oh, many of them had life on them, there is no doubt about that, but all of it seemed to be oddly stagnant. Growing in body, but never in mind, leaving a hole in the ecology of their worlds that seemed like a shining beacon for those who knew what to look for. Once they realized all the worlds humanity was exploring had that hole, the ones who were looking became very worried indeed," he gestured towards STAR for a moment, and somehow shifted the articles until he displayed a galactic map, circa 2325 A.D., the year of the first galactic census, and the original Ten Worlds.

"Each world that could hold life, did, even if they weren't all Earthlike. Yet, each appeared to be stopped at that moment before a sentient species could emerge. On one, a species of squids, almost at that level, were isolated somehow, never growing out of the canyons they lived in. On another, a species of birds oddly took up tools, but then put them down again, in a pattern that repeated itself over and over again, as if something was interfering, stopping evolution at that cusp," each world he spoke of popped up, and files on the species, now mostly extinct, were displayed for a moment.

"You're saying something did this? Some force?" asked Freya, and he nodded, gravely.

"That's what the people who knew to look believed. They saw these species held back, and wondered how it was done, and more, why hadn't it been done to humanity. Those questions plagued them and so they decided to act. They had no idea what form the threat would take, some kind of plague, an alien conqueror, or something even more different, so their solution had to be less specific than they would have liked. Finally, it was decided, they needed to make a human that was capable of surviving anything. They needed to make the Alpha of Humanity," he said the last, and suddenly a new world was displayed, one no one had visited in half a millennium, the world of Womb.


	61. History Lesson: Omega

"They knew the efforts would not be a small thing. Resources had to be assembled quietly, so as not to start a panic, both amongst the populace, and those who would see such beings as threats to humanity at large," he said, and ignored a few scoffs from us, as he continued.

"The work was slow, after all, they were trying to anticipate something that they could only guess at. Like trying to draw in a puzzle that's missing everything but the edge. It could be done, but it was difficult. They were dedicated, however, and after decades of work, many failures, and the loss of more than a few of their number, the first Alpha was born, the pinnacle of mankind," this had no accompanying image, just him gesturing to his two friends, who didn't even react to the knowledge of their creation, either already knowing it, or just not caring.

"Skin designed to take in light and convert it into energy. Muscles that were dense enough that modern weapons of the time, mostly kinetic based, couldn't penetrate it. Flameproof skin and hair. Reaction time an order of magnitude better than a human's. It could even survive vacuum for extended periods by entering a dormant state, allowing this new type of man to live through any disaster they could think of," he said the last in a grandiose fashion, like a presenter at a play or such. He even held his hand aloft, as if reaching out to heaven, only to lower it again, as his tone soured.

"Of course, it was only afterwards that they realized their greatest mistake. The Alpha, for all its power and ability, was incapable of breeding even if they created a female for him to do so with. They had been so focused on the survival of the individual that they had neglected the very reason they'd been doing the project in the first place, the survival of the species," Darien, his voice sounding very defeated, slumped back into his chair.

"So the Alpha's are sterile?" asked Katya, and Darien lightly shook his head, barely looking at us.

"Oh no, they could breed with other humans, though they needed special equipment to insure the transfer of their abilities to the child. However, it is the markers for those abilities that were the problem. Too much of that sort of thing in the blood caused problems in offspring, so two Alphas are incapable of making a little Alpha baby," he explained.

"Why not just use nutrient growth tanks? Humans can grow limbs in those, I know that. Surely growing a person is simply the next step up?" asked Joe, and Darien just shook his head.

"That's because you work with the blueprints of the DNA already there. Making brand new stuff is expensive. A single Alpha made that way would cost as much as a small ship would today. Still, the ones who'd made the Alphas eventually developed the equipment I mentioned, allowing for more to be made," he answered.

"After that, the project was forced to change. The Alphas could indeed survive virtually anything, but as they could not make more of themselves without humans, they were to be their guardians, the ultimate soldiers to defend it. Not one to leave the job half done, the men and women set to work designing the next step. Commanders for the Alphas," he said, and we stared at him.

"You mean Omegas?" asked JJ, and he shook his head.

"No, those would come later. First, they designed the Betas. It took less time, as this was not to be a survivor, but a leader, and thus, had a specific goal. Still, years would pass as they parsed the data, broke down genomes, and eventually created what they called a living computer, capable of taking in a battlefield at a glance, and a war without effort. They would lead the Alphas to victory regardless of what form the opponent would take," as he spoke, another image popped up, a clipping of a fuzzy image from the Alpha Wars, showing what looked like a man, commanding them. None of us recognized it, but Darien was already moving on.

"Afterwards, they thought harder, and realized the fight might take place in space, and better arms would be needed there. The Deltas were born of this thought process. Humans built to live in space, even able to exist in vacuum for far longer than the Alphas. They were pilots of ships, and builders of great fleets," he explained this without a visual of them, as apparently no records had been kept of them.

"Then the Epsilons were made. Engineers to the nth degree. Their minds were altered, focused on their tasks. Able to take in a device at a glance, and make it more. They pushed the boundaries of what was thought to be possible, even designing the base model for the hyperdrive you use today," this time we had images again, of the hyperdrive, comparing the models of the twenty-third century, to those of the twenty-fourth, and even the modern version.

"Finally, they designed the Omegas. We were to be the answer to coordination. Where the others dealt with the real world, we dealt with the mental. Tapping into the latent abilities of some humans to develop interesting abilities, we were created to bridge minds. Projecting our thoughts and will into the world, we could bring together all the bits that had been made, and create a cohesive whole," and with that, an image of the Alpha Fleets, hanging in the sky of some unknown world, was projected.

"You're missing a few letters there, aren't you?" chided Katya, and Darien chuckled.

"More than a few, but these were the only successful Projects. The others were either abject failures, or simply not applicable to the designs of our makers. For instance, the Kappas were designed to survive aquatic environments, at least until it was discovered that while lungs could take what they needed from a variety of air mixtures, gills were far pickier, and they were dumped. Still, we had a force to rival any in human history, though the effort itself had taken a century," as he spoke, Womb appeared again, this time with a few lights in orbit, probably stations or ships.

"And that was when we set out. Secret still, we began to disseminate the Epsilon's designs, and insert our people in positions the galaxy over, trying to bring others under our sway, as we searched for what was causing the odd hiccups in evolution on planets. As you might surmise, we didn't find it, and after twenty years, the ones who'd made us, or rather, their descendants, called us all back to Womb, to come up with a better plan," as he spoke, the image of Womb accelerated, going from a few lights, to hundreds, over a time lapse of decades.

"We had improved the lives of humans, with our hyperdrives able to make jumps in weeks instead of months, and the Great Diaspora was beginning, as the people of original Ten Worlds began to spread out even farther. Still, every world was the same, and yet, not a single one had a clue as to our mysterious enemy, and so we set to work with our creators, to design tests, new technologies, and just techniques we thought might smoke out our mysterious opponents that all our data still said was out there," as he spoke, he looked at me, and I felt put on the spot for a moment.

"One of those projects bore an interesting fruit, as one designer decided to make one final project, one whose goal was far less tangible than the others. Not stronger, not smarter, not in any way quantifiably better. No, this project was instead about those indefinable parts of humanity, a quality so many ascribed to, even if it's undefined. It was Project Gamma, the project to create the Luckiest person alive," he smirked at that, waving his hands as if he was presenting something, even as STAR projected the symbol for Gamma, an upside down L shape.

"And how did that work?" asked Freya after taking a moment to process that, and in answer, Darien sort of deflated for a moment, before just shrugging.

"I've been inside the minds of many very intelligent people over the years, and in all honesty, I have no idea how this was planned. All I know is that it did, indeed, work. The first product of it proved to be a woman whom fortune smiled on, and her maker assured us all that her 'ability' would be passed on, even without the machines the Alpha's needed. Of course, her first big success came when she was somehow able to find our enemies for us, something we had been attempting for decades, she did before she was in her twenties," as he spoke, an image of a ship, a cone shaped thing with little tendrils coming out of the back, was projected. It was grainy, with barely any detail to it, but it was a ship.

"We don't know how long they'd been observing us, they were using technology so many centuries, if not millennia ahead of ours that without her Luck, we wouldn't have even seen them. Of course, that first lucky break still ended with it jumping away before we could do anything about it, but we kept scanning, and eventually we were able to pin down our foe, a Pug scout ship, and disabled it," this time he had no images to accompany it, but somehow I saw a picture in my head of a ship piloted by a stereotypical grey alien, with a large head, thin limbs, and tiny chest.

"We tried talking to the pilot, tried to be gentle as we could, but the Pug are an interesting race. A hive mind of sorts, with many bodies, and many wills, but a single overriding intelligence. Sort of like the androids your AI uses. Iterations of itself in each body that add back, but are then overwritten, by a single source. Still, when it wouldn't talk, we took what we wanted from it by force, ripping its mind apart, and coming to grasp the true scope of the threat we now faced," again, an image popped up, this one a simulation though, of an object called a Dyson Sphere, scaled against the Sol System.

"A living being, the Org, larger than worlds, with the power to snuff out stars. Such is the being that dominates this galaxy. It's power is so far beyond ours that even the ameba comparison isn't accurate. It is, to put it bluntly, a god, and we mere mortals can either hide from it, worship it, or simply be crushed by it," as he spoke, Bandit looked at the image, and whispered something. When she cried out, every eye was drawn to her, as I rushed to her side. I didn't know enough about Quarg to actually help, but I still offered her my hand, and she took it, her vice like grip holding on like I was a lifeline.

"I...I remember it, but I, I don't. It is very confusing," she said between forced breaths, and I nodded, motioning towards a nearby water cooler in the corner of the room. One of the monks who'd been standing silent all this time rushed to get her a cup, and the grateful Quarg sipped at the liquid for a few minutes, before finally sitting back in her seat.

"A puppet of the Org. The Quarg monitor the prisoners, the Pug evaluate new cases, and an Avian race we never encountered clean up the worlds, with the Drak on hand to be the guards, should any of the inmates prove uppity enough to need beat down," he said, and I nod numbly at it, remembering meeting all of those races.

"I've met those avians. They're called the Wanderers, and two other prisoner races. The Hai and the Korath. You're saying there are more?" I ask, and he just chuckles at it.

"More than I can imagine. The Drak prune the prisoners down, to minimum viability. In some cases, that's many systems, in others, it just one or two. For the Hai, it's obviously far larger than normal," he said.

"Still, we would not be cowed. Those who made us knew that such a being might exist, and humanity would fight, regardless of how hopeless it seemed. We were readied for war, the Alphas to fight, the Betas to lead individual fights, the Deltas to fly the ships, the Epsilons to design them, and we Omegas to bring them all together. We were aware the war would likely end in death, and we went to it willingly," he told us, seemingly proud of what his people had done..

"What about the Gamma? Shouldn't she have been involved in this? After all, without her, you wouldn't have even found your enemy," mentioned Katya, and that question seemed to give Darien a moment of pause, before he just shook his head, collapsing back into his seat as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"You know, you're right. If we'd been smart, we would have had her leading the charge, but we all thought her ability was simply too...odd to be useful. Worse, at some point during the year long prep we had, she and her creator vanished, and while it was a point of interest to find her, we dedicated far too few resources to that task, especially with the Pug ship to still dissect for new technologies. In the shuffle of things, she was forgotten about," he admitted.

"And then the Alpha Wars started," declared Raven, and Darien again barked out a laugh.

"Of course not. We wanted to protect humanity at that point, remember? We contacted Parliament once we were ready, to inform them of our findings, to show them our evidence, and convince them to help us lead humanity to its freedom. We would die, more than likely, but we would die free, and that had to be worth something," as he spoke, his voice became dark.

"You can guess what their response was, even with what we showed them. Fear turning to Denial, Denial turning to Anger, and Anger turning into guns pointed at us. What the history books have always left out of the Alpha Wars is that we didn't fire the first shot, and that they started almost five decades before they are thought to," and this time there was an image to accompany him, one of Womb, but with burning ships in orbit, the date on the image itself indeed marking this as fifty-three years before the Alpha Wars.


	62. History Lesson: War

"They sent ships, fleets of ships, to destroy us. They knew what we said was true, but they refused to believe it. No, our data had to be wrong, and rather than risk the information getting out, they sent their Navy to destroy us, bombing Womb without warning, using weapons we'd designed and given them," another recording, this one grainy and flickering, but obviously from a Navy ship, as it rained death on Womb below.

"We didn't fight back then. We couldn't. Our Makers told us not to, tried to get through to the Navy, but they refused to listen. The Parliament told them we were traitors, and their orders were to destroy us. In total, we lost over ninety-percent of our forces. Of the twenty-seven Omegas made, eight survived, and not one of our creators did. By the time the Navy left, satisfied that we weren't a threat, Womb was in the grip of a nuclear winter, and we were left to eek out an existence in the ruins of one verdant world," his voice became angry for a moment, speaking of the Navy, but then, very sad instead.

"We rebuilt, obviously. We were the ultimate survivors, after all. The Alphas that had come through healthy enough helped us to clean the world up, and the Epsilons had been smart, hiding some of their best toys until it became necessary to use them. With the Pug ship still to study, we made even greater leaps forward, over the next few decades, and would soon be able to take our place as the protectors of humanity, whether it wanted to be protected or not," declared Darien.

"A tragedy, to be sure, but does that justify what you and your's did during the Wars?" asked Raven, and Darien just shook his head slowly.

"No, no it did not. The people who had done such to us were dead by the time we moved again. Some by our hand, some by the simple passage of time. We knew that, but we didn't care. Humans had rejected us, had forced us into this position, and while we would never admit it, even to ourselves, we made them suffer, even as we made them ready to fight in the war that was to come," the image flickered, and this time it showed the first official battle of the Alpha Wars, over the world now known as Martini.

"We needed to assert dominance. The humans had shown they weren't willing to simply join us against our mutual enemy. They had to be brought to heel instead. Our first target was a soft one, a world of the rich and powerful, with few ground based defenses to mar their sculpted landscapes. They surrendered in less than an hour, and were probably the only planet never to mount a large scale resistance in the entire war," this time, the image was replaced again, with a galactic map, showing the war as it progressed.

"From there, we moved on to the nearby worlds. Five decades of rebuilding, followed by a decade of war. Humanity had expanded, however, past Womb, a group of colonies, thought to be from a lost ship in the early days of jump travel had been discovered. They resisted us with technology almost a match for ours, but we had better soldiers, pilots, and people. We were grinding them down, regardless of their toys. Soon enough, we fought two major battles, breaking both group simultaneously. The Deep and the Republic were both reeling, as we invaded," familiar scenes, the Gate and the Line, played out for a moment, before the recording was cut off.

"Then the Deep rallied. How, we couldn't understand at the time, but it didn't matter. Led by the same explorer who had discovered them, the Deep spread out, and over only a handful of months, we were beaten back, eventually once more meeting our foes in the skies of Womb, and this time, there were no survivors on the planet, as our fleets were smashed, and finally, the world on which we were born was itself reduced to rubble," the recording of the victory at Womb played, but only long enough to show the initial bombing, before the world itself was broken down, and then it stopped.

"All total, only a handful of us survived, by simply not being there. A few Alphas, some of the other types, and five Omegas. We retreated, but not far, settling on a world newly terraformed, a swampy place that had the potential to grow. A tiny colony called New Boston," the picture of Womb was replaced, this time with my homeworld, looking far more sickly than I'd ever seen it. Patches of green, interwoven with tiny slivers of grey, and crisscrossed by shadows of solar mirrors and the like.

"From there, we began to expand, slowly this time. Martial force had failed us, but we had other methods at our disposal. As Omegas, we were almost immortal, aging far slower than human standard, with our minds able to keep ordered for centuries, or so our creators had assured us. We built connections, ingratiating ourselves upon the lines we'd built before the conflict, lines we'd kept in place, as contingencies, just in case conquest failed. So it was that we five carved up the galaxy, each taking our own little corners to manipulate," five familiar faces, including Darien's own, hovered in the air, over a galactic map, with lines dividing their areas of interest.

"Hobbes took the Deep itself. He wanted to know how it was they'd beaten us, where the technology, superior to our own which was being reverse engineered from the captured Pug, had come from," the image of him highlighted for a moment, so the others would know who he was.

"Claire, being of a mind that humans could not stand alone. We needed allies, and we'd discovered a wormhole in an isolated system, an anomaly of chance, that we'd intended on studying later. She risked herself and her followers going through it, and finding the Hai, sealed in their cage on the other side," again, her picture glowed brighter, and I could feel Joe bristling a little at the mention of her people being caged.

"Bernard decided to work on the fringe of society. He took the more independent leaning worlds and brought them to heel, with him as a sort of shadow king over the various bandit lords. His plan was to become adaptive. Our rigidity was our downfall, having a central world which housed most of our forces. His pirates were looser in their affiliations, but controllable in all the ways such men were. In the end, he was the one with the widest spread network of contacts and personnel," Bernard's face briefly flashed, along with worlds scattered over the map.

"Charles, meanwhile, wanted to go where the money was, because money is power, and as the oldest of us, he'd always been the leader. He situated himself at the heart of industry, where the Megacorps had moved to be out from under the government's watchful eye. It was he who, after a lot of effort, forged the Syndicate, though not one of them was aware of his manipulations. He created, through force of his own will, the most powerful economic force in the galaxy. Quite an accomplishment, even for one of our talents," this time, the oldest looking face on the board flashed, and the Syndicate worlds did the same.

"And that brings us to you," said Raven, and Darien just smirked at her.

"It does indeed. I had other ideas compared to my compatriots. They were assembling forces outside the Republic, but I felt the Republic itself was our best bet at creating a unified force against the Org. So I set about ingratiating myself to the highest levels of power, both political and military. Eventually, I splintered off a group, of people with potential like the Omegas. Mentalists waiting to be born into a new world. Eventually, this group formed the core of Navy Intelligence, with me at the head," this time his own picture flashed, and Earth along with it.

"So you secretly took control of everything?" asked Alondo, and Darien shrugged.

"We had other thoughts on our minds than just that, though we did try our hand at puppet masters. However, our long term goal remained. The Org remained. So we studied, and scouted, and otherwise tried to find some way to fight on its level. After all, our study eventually revealed how it was the Deep had defeated us, and that changed a lot of our plans," the galactic map vanished, and soon a picture of Elizabeth Sage appeared in the air, along with an image of the Deep ships built at the time of the Alpha Wars, the hulls that had defeated the Alphas.

"Specifically, we realized that the tech we were fighting was Pug tech. Apparently, no matter what they said, the Deep Thinkers hadn't built a thing, instead they'd been contacted by the Pug, and been given the tools to defeating us. Likely as some sort of corrective measure. Make sure humans weren't expanding too quickly or the like," as he spoke, he brought up design specs, specifically of Deep built engines, and even the electron turrets we'd been seeing.

"Of course, the tech was only part of our interest. The majority lay with the one who'd been at the forefront of it. This woman, Elizabeth Sage, who'd somehow come out of nowhere, explored new hyperspace routes, and even made contact with lost colonies, thought at the time to be made from colony ships in the earliest days that had gone far off course. Those sorts of finds take a lot of Luck," this time an image was displayed, Elizabeth, a woman in her sixties, though still youngish looking, side by side with an image of a young girl.

"It took far too much effort, all things considered, but we did finally get a sample of her DNA, and with our equipment, confirmed the flags in her genes that marked her as one of the Projects. Elizabeth Sage, first of your line, was actually the sole result of the Gamma Project," he said, and then displayed her image beside several others, her descendents going faster until finally, it arrives at the last two. My mother, and then me.

"You, Mr. Sage, are part of the family," he said with a smirk.


	63. History Lesson: Gamma

"Hmm, I honestly expected more of a reaction to that," he admitted a few seconds later, as the room around him stood silent, and I shrugged.

"You're a bit less skilled at storytelling than you think. Besides, I kind of figured it would be something like that. You people targeted my family. If you turned out to be mutant freaks, my family probably was too," I admitted.

"You believe him then?" Katya asked, and I nodded.

"Like he said, Luck runs in my family. They outlawed gambling shortly after my grandmother almost won our way off world on a single card game, and fortune always seemed to smile on us. I'll not say we had easy lives, but considering where we lived, it wasn't the worst either. We just couldn't leave, and a Sage is meant to wander the stars, not stay on one backwater planet all their life," I explained.

"Indeed. We needed to know where you were at all times, to prevent you and yours from interfering. We still don't know all the details, but it was Elizabeth herself who somehow attracted the attention of the Pug, and got them to assist the Deep against us. She was Lucky enough to find just the right words to get them to help, without simply calling down the Org's full power upon humanity. I, if none of the others, believed that meant something," he added.

"What did it mean?" asked Alondo.

"It meant we shouldn't win. I was thinking about it for a long time, realizing how foolish we'd been. Acting openly like we did. The Pug, we knew they were there to watch us, and we knew what was behind them now. We never even considered that what we were doing might bring the hammer down, and so we'd charged ahead recklessly. This time was going to be different though. Subtle means of control, guiding rather than dominating, hopefully all without attracting undue attention," he answered.

"We began to study the jumpdrive, knowing it would be the key to even finding our enemy, as it didn't have to rely on the gravitc pathways between the stars. Sadly, no scan we took of the thing was able to tell us how it worked, and we dared not risk opening it, for fear we'd break it in some way. Instead, we began to scout, hoping to find the Pug, or perhaps another race to help us. Of course, what we found was far more useful," this time the image displayed as he spoke was one that drew questioning stares from most of those present. Myself and my people though, we knew it well. It was a Korath Raider.

"We found this species right near where the Syndicate had been set up, fighting each other in seemingly endless wargames, using stations that literally grew ships out of silver goop. While they were powerful, they were also ignorant savages. A warrior caste of one of the sealed away races, left to rot in a prison as they fought in war games against each other without rhyme or reason, just for the thrill of battle," his voice was flat, as if he were talking about a tool, rather than a people who were slowly rotting away.

"We realized quickly that their stations could copy technology, a fact we plucked from the mind of one of them, which sadly killed him, and revealed the stations needed living masters to work. So we baited a trap, got one of them to steal the jumpdrive, and then, when they'd produced a ship with it, we stole it away, leaving just enough of a breadcrumb trail for them to follow us. Viola, a ready source of jumpdrives. Not a quick one, but still, more than we'd had," he explained, and this seemed to set Bandit off, her finger jabbing towards him.

"You! You were the ones who violated the law forbidding those monsters the power to leave their space. Did you even understand what you did? How many lives they've taken, not just amongst your own people, but in other stars as well?" she demanded, and he just smiled at her.

"Oh, we realized what we'd done, but we needed those drives, so it was deemed an acceptable risk. Better, Claire was able to bargain with the Unfettered, a group of Hai that looked to escape their prison, using the drives as leverage to get them under our heel," he continued to smile, despite Bandit looking ready to kill him.

"Until we killed her, and ended that trade. Saving not only the Hai, but the Wanderers as well from the horrors you unleashed in your ignorance," I reminded him, and that wiped the smile off his face quick as lightning.

"Indeed. Yet again, a Gamma interfered in our plans. You really are most vexing in that way, Cousin," he said, and it was my turn to smile at him. Before I could respond, however, JJ finally spoke up.

"Tell us then, what was the plan before Mr. Sage intervened. You say you had one, but if it was to incite a war between the Free Worlds and the Republic, that would seem counter to all the goals you say you have, reducing the military ability of humanity, rather than increasing it," asked the older man, and Darien looked thoughtful for a moment, stroking his chin, before shrugging.

"Our plan was simple. Using the money that Mr. Sage's family would have gotten otherwise, we were increasing tech developments all over the galaxy, and literally buying the political and economic power we needed to take control when the time came. It wasn't easy. A galactic scale government has more moving parts than I think anyone really understands, even us, but it was going along at a good clip. In time, we would have peacefully transferred power from the Parliament to ourselves, without anyone even realizing the structure of government had changed," he explained.

"And how do the Free Worlds factor into that? Given what the Admiral said, he left long after the Southern Mutual Defense Pact was formed, the basis of the Free Worlds. The split was coming, regardless of the bombings of Geminus and Martini," counter Katya.

"Indeed, and that was part of the plan. By limiting Navy expenditures in your area of space, we were forcing you to become more independent, building you up, but without allowing you access to the resources that would have made you a threat. We predicted within a few years your would collapse in on yourselves, either through infighting, or simple pressure from within. The worlds the Free Worlds started on are mostly under terraformed. In fact, we believed you would exhaust your resources in attempts to find more efficient or effective methods of terraforming," responded Darien.

"What about the Andersons? They're even now helping us develop those new techniques. Did you model account for them? Or Ijs contributions to our government?" asked JJ, and Darien actually laughed, slapping at his knee.

"Oh? And how would you have gotten them to you? The Andersons were under watch, without the ability to freely travel. Without a ship captain in an independent position with a good sized fleet, you would have been forced to operate without their aid. As for Mr. Eyes contribution, he was in the same boat. Heck, even with Mr. Sage's aid, we almost prevented him from leaving Syndicate space. Ten minutes made the difference there. Without either of them, our models showed Tomek either trying to take power himself, for the good of the people, or your Senate tearing itself apart, as there simply wasn't enough scraps to go around," he answered, and that caused some dark looks to pass between the Councilors present, knowing that almost happened regardless, given Tomek's actions on Greenrock.

"Still, with you as an existential threat, we would have rallied systems to the Republic, causing the Parliament to take on more and more power, centralizing authority to 'better deal with the growing crisis'. Within a decade, the Free Worlds would collapse, and we would have total control of every bit of human space, and would have advanced into Hai space through the wormhole, the Unfettered coming from the north, as we came up from the south, and conquer the whole territory," he looked at Joe, and smiled again, but she didn't seem to be reacting to his words, so he just shrugged and moved on.

"After that, we would have focused our efforts on finding the Org, likely taking at least one of the Quarg Rings by force of arms. As powerful as your people are, they are not invincible, and we would have had access to their technology quickly enough. We even believed we were getting closer to cracking not only Jumpdrives, but the memetic polyalloy that the Korath used. Those advantages might just have been enough to win the war against our real threat, and cement humanity's place as the top of galactic ladder," he seemed to finish, and looked at us.

None spoke for a long time. What could really be said, after all, considering what we'd just heard. So much of the galaxy's inner workings laid low, and revealed to be the machinations of so small a group. We each took it in in different ways, but after a long moment, I leaned back in my chair, stared at that ceiling, and took in a big breath. This seemed to give everyone a moment of pause, before I sighed the air out, and then finally rose to my feet, pointing a finger towards Darien.

"And that brings us to now. You've betrayed Charles, because he wants to bomb indiscriminately, sow chaos and confusion, all in a bid for power that is likely to fail miserably," I said, stalking forward. Darien, for his part, just nodded as I got closer.

"He's still planning it. Regardless of what I've done to set him back, he's desperate, and as it is, he's alone now. He'll be driven to even greater extremes," he admitted, rising out of his own chair to meet me, the Alphas coming forward with him.

"Then we'll meet him. All my ships, plus everything everyone else has, taken to Earth. Your evidence to convince them of what is going on, and we can gain the Navy's aid as well. That done, we take the fight to him, and then, after all that, we work on repairing part of the damage your fool plan has done. Once we have at least some measure of peace, we'll deal with the Pug, and then their master," I said, and everyone present nodded. It was only as I began to launch back to my ship, over an hour later after we'd worked out fleet movements, that I realized I was now in charge of this group, and would probably be until all this was over.


	64. Evidence

The flight back to space, with Joe, Bandit, and the rest of the Councilors at my side were silent, as my fleet formed up around me. When we were all in formation, I issued a few vague orders, waiting as the Navy Intelligence ship, now carrying Raven and Darien, rose up to meet us. The small seeming gunship, a corvette at best, was putting out readings like nothing I'd seen, and I knew it to be a match for my ships one on one. That being the case, I had an entire wing take position around them, just in case.

"So, where are we headed first?" I asked on an open channel, and Darien in the image in front of me just shrugged, opening a map of the galaxy, and eventually transmitting coordinates.

"I'd say our best course of action would be to gather all the proof we possibly can. Your friend, Eyes, likely has all his data backed up, and he's got friends in the Parliament. Bringing him with us should add even more legitimacy to our claims, and convince those who find my own department a bit...clandestined," he said after, and I set course. I have to use the normal routes, as Raven's gunboat lacks my jumpdrive, which gives us time as we sail to catch up with each other, going over what had happened with Katya.

"So, Tomek's still under house arrest, right?" asked the Counselor as she sipped at a cup of coffee while we were in one system, refilling our tanks using the local primary.

"We've been considering taking him as time served, and given recent events, likely would have done so the moment we were in contact again. This assault is just the sort of action he could do well against," answered JJ as he took a slug of something a lot stronger.

"I see. Well, we still might need him, so you might want to get him and Alondo together as soon as possible. We're in for a fight like nothing else, when all this blows up," she said.

"You think Darien will betray us?" asked Freya, and Katya shook her head.

"No, he's trustworthy, in his own twisted way, but that's the problem really. He's said things about Charles that paint a picture of a man used to being in control, of everything he surveys. With everything blowing up in his face the way this did, I can see him doing some desperate, and very stupid things," she responded, finishing her cup just as the indicator hit full, and we jumped away again.

Landing on Winter, we're greeted at the port by Ijs, who comes rushing up the ramp, and the instant he sees Katya, I can actually see the sparkle in his eyes that says he's tearing up, at least for a moment, before he wipes it away, and rushes to her. The man, about the same height as her, can't actually scoop her up in his arms, but he gives a very good try as the two circle each other, laughing loudly. When the pair finally calm down, he directs a few young people, probably students, to bring in boxes behind him.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you again, Katya," he says to her, and she just smiles and shakes her head.

"I think that's my line, but we can catch up later. Do you still have those isotopic fingerprints from the bomb sites?" she asks, and he gestures towards the boxes.

"Oh, more than that, my lady. Far more than that. I got the message that I'd be needed, and had a sub fill in for me at my classes for a week now, while I assembled as much data as I could. If those old blow hards at the Parliament refuse my evidence, then there's no hope at all of convincing them," he says, and I nod gravely, before one of the androids projects an image of Raven into the bay.

"Ah, good. I was afraid this would take longer. With Professor Eyes and his equipment on board, my suggestion would be that was proceed to Mutiny, the test site. There, we should chase away or destroy the guard fleet, and get samples from the local environment. Even with clean up efforts, there should still be enough evidence there to add a final nail in the coffin to what we already have," she said.

"Don't you think we have enough already?" I asked, and she seemed to consider her answer carefully, before shaking her head.

"No, even with this, and that, I'm not sure Parliament will be moved. However, the more we can present, the better our case is for the people, and if enough of them are swayed, it won't matter what the politicians say," she answers, before cutting the connection. We all look at each other, before making our way back to the bridge. There, it's a quick course setting, and we're off to the Gienah system, with Mutiny as our destination.

Oddly, despite expecting resistance, only a few patrols here and there every challenge us as we probe Syndicate space, with just a few Quicksilver and Splinters, but none of the large Protectors or other vessels. Specifically, nothing equipped with nuclear level arms. Which I think only builds my tension levels up as we jump through system, after system, always moving just a bit too slowly for my tastes, as we have to stick to the regular routes to allow Raven and Darien in their ship to keep pace.

It's almost a relief when we enter the system, and Covert, the only inhabited planet in the system, launches an attack. It's not major, just a few pirate vessels, but still, it's large enough to show they're trying to keep us away at least, and by the end of it, we land on the planet near an out of place clearing, and wait for what feels like hours as Ijs works his magic. His fingers seem to fly over the controls as he takes scan after scan of the shaft that Darien had directed us to, slowly working to match data with his original findings at Geminus and Martini.

"There, it's as complete a list as can be expected. I've matched the reading here to my others within a ninety-nine-percentile rating," he says, and tries to show us his findings, but I just shrug, at least until the alarms start ringing.

"Enemy contact! Syndicate ships, a lot of them, have entered the system," screams one of the wing commanders floating above us, and I quickly launch us back into orbit. On the way, I'm forced to dodge blasts from electron beams, and even a few missiles, pushing the hull to the structural limit until we hit the outer edge of the atmosphere and I can turn the shields on, just in time to take a blow from a torpedo. Luckily, the ship that fired the shot is quickly taken down, as the maddening melee of vessels in the system grows even more chaotic.

"All forces, this is Admiral Sage, we've got what we came for. I repeat, we don't need to fight these guys. Bug out towards Earth," I order, setting course, and then punching away. The enemy ships are shiftly on our heels, however, as every system we enter they are literally minutes behind us. This forces us to have a running fight though Syndicate space as we escort Darien and Raven to Earth, with the chase breaking off as we enter the Sol system itself, where the largest fleet I've ever seen is waiting for us.


	65. Legal Battles

The mixture of hulls is just, breathtaking. The whole of the system seems just filled with ships, of designs I couldn't even name, and all flying a riot of colors. Some wore their Navy stripes with pride, others flew the green of the Free Worlds, and still others were merchants, blue neutrals showing to everyone who would watch, and even a smattering of purple, the sign of the Syndicate, hung in the skies of humanity's home system, all looking like they were waiting for something to happen.

"Unknown force, this is Earth Sphere control, you have entered our sensors with no official registered flight plan. Please confirm your intentions, before we're forced to take action," comes a female voice of the comm, with the signal source being Earth itself. Before I can respond, Darien and Raven's vessel moves between us and the planet.

"This is Director Fawkes of Navy Intelligence," he says.

"And Raven of the same. Transmitting keycodes now," finishes the woman, and soon a data burst comes from their ship. After what feels like hours, the woman at the other end of the line comes back.

"Confirmed, Director. Is this force with Navy Intelligence?" she asks, her voice sounding a little disturbed by the size of the fleet a simple Intelligence agency could gather, or possibly at the idea that it might need such a force at all.

"Negative, the force is independent of mine, but is here with my permission. The Parliament is being gathered for a special session, and my friends and I will be given two priority berths immediately near the building," he orders, with the tone of someone who is used to being obeyed. A few minutes later, JJ, Ijs, and a few students, carry the boxes towards the Parliament building, while Raven, myself, Katya, and Darien take our seats in an adjoining room, to wait for the outcome of the session.

"So, you've been out here longer than I have lately. What do you give our chances of them coming down on our side?" she asked of me, but Raven was the one who answered.

"I'm afraid the Syndicate simply has too much leverage on most of the Parliament for them to readily agree with us. However, once the session is over, a recording of it will be leaked onto the network, and I'm positive that will change the minds of the people. Those idiots will be caught, and we'll see if they want to risk the ire of the voters, or the Syndicate heads," she said rather confidently, and before more can be said, the door beside us opens up, JJ stumbling out into the room.

"JJ, how'd it go?" asked Katya, but JJ holds up his hand for a moment. Walking over to the minibar in the room, he pulls out a bottle, and pours a small glass of some whiskey. Then he chugs from the bottle straight for almost half a minute, before putting it back, and picking up the glass. Taking a seat, he turns to us, and sighs.

"Sawyer did his best, but those fools refuse to be moved. They think this is still something they can negotiate or place fines against the Syndicate for, not take real action against," he says, as he sips at the glass, looking defeated.

"It is very much as expected then," says Darien, and then he pulls out a palmtop computer. He quickly types in a few commands, as JJ finishes with his drink and turns to Raven.

"Sawyer said the Syndicate was acting off models someone, probably this Charles person, supplied. He talked about economic downfalls and the like. Said war was the only way they saw to prevent a huge recession from hitting the galactic economy. Mind, I could have told them that without any of their fancy numbers," said the man, and Raven nodded.

"Of course. Human space has been expanding repeatedly over the last century, but we've now reached the limit on how far we can go before transporting goods becomes an issue. There were bound to be consequences, but do they truly fear that so much? It would have been lean years while the economy stabilized, but to go so far…" she trailed off, before taking a glass herself. She offered me one, but I waved it off, while Katya just took the bottle.

"So, they refuse to move. What now?" I ask, and as if in answer to that, Darien walks over to me.

"Now, we go to the Deep. A group of their representatives was the most open to our information, and as of now they're our best bet in getting more than half hearted action out of the Parliament," he says, I nod, though I slap his hand away when he tries to touch me.

"How do we know Charles won't try his bombing plan when we leave, though? I mean, he's got to be even more desperate now than he was before," I ask, and Darien just chuckles.

"Oh, that's not going to be a problem for a while. I've laid the groundwork for exposing him, and he's got to know that. Kill us all, and he'll just ruin that plan, so for now he'll be going over his models, and trying to find a better solution in them," he assured us, and then we left. Getting back to my ship, I find Freya talking system design with Bandit and Joe, before we all get into position, escorting the NavInt gunboat out of system towards Valhalla.

Luckily, our route isn't blocked, despite the two...or possibly three, it was hard to remember, times I'd fought the Deep's fleets, or been on the other side of their guns. Whatever the case, we're allowed into the heart of their space, and when we arrive at one of the few planets with enough berths for all of us, I decide to show a bit of trust and have the entire fleet land, allowing my three-hundred some odd pilots a bit of down time, while my group of Councilors, aliens, and Navy Intelligence are escorted to the home of Edrick Flint, the governor of Valhalla.

"A pleasure to meet you, Admiral. You've made yourself quite the reputation of late," he says as he offers us meals and drinks. Somehow, he's found enough time to assemble Quarg and Hai dishes, as well as the favorites of the Councilors from the Free Worlds. Probably because they were known public figures before all this began. For me, he has a few things set aside, but his chefs were obviously flummoxed when it came to what I would enjoy. Still, what he has prepared tastes fine.

"Not intentionally, I assure you," I tell him, and he chuckles at me.

"Oh, but you've done so much to bring yourself to our attention. Joining your fate to that Archeologist and his group really brought you into the limelight around here," he assured me, and I actually smile at the memory, mostly because it was when I'd killed Hobbs, but also because it had been nice to help the man with his research.

"Regardless, I've called you all here to offer a suggestion that should help end the current crisis. As you might or might not know, the Deep is technically an independent state still, though nominally we are part of the Republic. Given that fact, we're allowed a great deal of autonomy to deal with the criminal element, including taking police action against those that flee our borders," he says the last with a smile that is just dripping with promise, and I pause in my eating to look at him.

"You mean you believe our information?" I ask, and he just laughs for a moment.

"Of course we do. Everyone in Parliament could see that Mr. Sawyer's information was completely irrefutable, and with all the additional evidence you brought, it's not even a question. And with the session's contents leaking out to the wider population, everyone in human space knows it as well. The only problem we're faced with is how to respond to what was an attack on humanity by those both of, and outside, our government," as he spoke, a galactic map was projected from somewhere, and hovered over the table, with a route from the Deep into Syndicate space at the core highlighted.

"What we propose is to bring one of the masterminds behind the attack to justice. A force of our ships, escorted by your own vessels, with breach the defenses of a Syndicate world, and take one of them. So long as we present our evidence to a judge here before actually making the arrest, it will all fulfill the requirements of the legal system. In a very technical manner, I'll admit, but one must work with the law one has, not what one wants," he says, and I look at the people at my sides.

"And just how will a fleet of foreign ships, ones who are probably on the blacklist, do this without igniting a second war?" asks Freya, and the governor chuckles again.

"Because we'll have our ships escorted by the Admiral's. As well, I've been in contact with Councilor Alondo of the Free Worlds, and one of your Dreadnaughts will be allowed to come to Earth, along with a patrol group from the Oathkeepers. Joining those with our own ships, you'll have representatives of three of the four major groups in Human space. If the Syndicate opposes you, they will not be facing a single opponent in whatever war they try to start," he said, grinning like the cat who caught the canary.

"It sounds like you've covered all the angles. Still, if you want to have a court trial before the arrest, Mr. Sawyer will have to remain here," says Katya, and Mr. Flint nods.

"I'm aware that is a show of trust on your part, but I assure you, we of the Deep only want this resolved as quickly as possible. Removing the allies of this, Charles person, should help undo whatever plans he's got, and what's more, Mr. Sawyer will be safer here, than in the middle of the battle you're likely to be involved in," he says, and I can't find an argument there. We'd come through unscathed before now, but that had been luck. My Luck specifically. This was going to be really pushing it, however. Especially since we'd have to stop to refuel at stars along the way, and the Syndicate was likely to know that as well.

"What about information? We need to know who to grab, and where they are, before we get into Syndicate space," says Freya, and that actually causes every head to turn to Darien, who's in the middle of eating his own meal. With a very deliberate slowness, he wipes his mouth clean, and then shrugs at us.

"I'm not very up on who Old C has for allies, I'm afraid. I do, however, know who would. A pirate boss in the sector, one of the ones who worked for Bernard, has all sorts of dirt on the Syndicate. Get to his base on Stormhold, and he'll know exactly who you need to grab," he informed us, before returning to the food. The rest of the evening passes in silence as we dine, and then just as quickly depart. Before I leave, however, the governor takes me aside, and hands me a data drive.

"This is every scrap of evidence you collected, along with keycodes and identify files from all over the Deep. If something happens, while you're away, this alone, should be able to grease some wheels," he says, and then sees us off to the Spaceport, where we launch again into space.


	66. Illegal Battles

Arriving in Sol again, we're greeted by the same mixture of ships, with a few more hulls added that are quite a sight. A flight of three Dreadnaughts, backed up by ships flying Free Worlds colors are holding in a parking orbit above Luna, and I get a ping from them the instant we enter the system. Soon enough, the force of Free Worlds ships are joined by Oathkeeper vessels as well as some ships that are registered as Deep escort ships for one of their trade convoys, all just happening to be together in the same system.

"Admiral Sage, it's been a while," says a familiar voice, and myself, as well as JJ, Freya, and Katya perk up as Tomek's face soon hovers in front of us.

"It has indeed, Admiral Voigt," I respond, and he waves his hand in a dismissive way.

"I'm afraid my commission has been revoked there. My rank is merely Captain now, but I'm doing my best to prove that I can be trusted again," he tells us, and then he faces Katya.

"It's very gratifying to see you free, Councilor Reynolds. I'm sorry I wasn't able to free you myself," he apologized to her.

"Don't mention it, Tomek. We'll get together over drinks after all this is done, and swap stories," she assured him.

"An excellent idea. I assume the Free Worlds will be picking up that tab?" comes another familiar voice, this of Admiral Danforth, who's face is soon hovering next to Tomek's.

"Heh, we'll see. I don't think we can afford the grog rations of all the crews on our vessels, but maybe a bottle or two to split between us," she assures him, getting everyone laughing for a moment, before the NavInt gunboat pulls away.

"I'm thinking this is where we get off this particular ride. My people will get themselves into position for the fallout from all this, so we don't accidentally collapse human society while trying to save it. Afterwards, Mr. Sage, you and I shall have another long talk, I believe," he tells me, and after eyeing a few weapons controls on my ship, I nod at him, letting him fly off. There's bigger fish to fry, after all, and now that I know who he works with, he's not going to vanish on me again.

"All forces, fall in with my fleet. We'll be taking the long way to the Syndicate, with a detour to Stormhold. I don't want anyone getting lost or falling behind, so if you need fuel, ask. My ships have the best Ramscoops out of all of us," I order, and then set course. A few seconds later, a massive group of ships depart the Sol system, probably giving the Syndicate a heart attack as they try to prepare for our arrival. Luckily, they don't decide to face us in the uninhabited systems between us and Stormhold, meaning we get there without a single battle. The pirates even give us a berth with ease, considering the force hovering over their heads is more than enough to glass the entire planet, if they decide to test us.

"Heh, so, you're the one who've been causing all the ruckus in the galaxy of late, huh?" says an old looking man, his body looking thin and wiry, despite wearing a suit that I recognize as low profile power armor, like the one Nyguyen wore at Poisonwood. Around us, he had maybe five guards, and half again as many attendants, usually young women of a certain type his kind enjoyed. Of course, since we were in his fortress, with our fleet surrounding the planet, we both probably felt pretty secure in our position.

"I wouldn't take all the credit, but for now, we're going to be disturbing the peace in the Syndicate. We were hoping you'd be able to help us pick a good target," I said, and the old man just laughed, before motioning towards one of his women. She listened to his whisper for a moment, before rushing out of the room, and then quickly returning with a datadrive.

"A little bird told me you'd be needing this, so I had it ready for you. It's a list of all those I know were involved with the nuke plan. Never actually figured I'd get real use out of it, but in my line of business, every scrap of information is good to hang onto," he said, handing the drive to me, and then waving us off. We thank him for the information, and then hightail it out of the system, STAR quickly going over every byte of data, and selecting a target for us.

"Hmm, some of these are already missing persons, so likely dead. A few others are on Hephaestus, or Foundry. We could get them with the force we have, but we'd have a heck of a fight getting there. Wait, one of them," he said this as the list froze on a name. Alexander Soylent, a chief financial officer who basically owned the planet of Nimbus, directing his affairs from a private yacht/floating island he lived on, at least according to the file.

"A soft target system. Out of the way, no direct routes in from a staging area. We hit that place hard and fast enough, and no way the Syndicate can even respond. I like it," said Tomek, and Danforth quickly agrees. With no better options, I punch in the coordinates, and within a week, we're in the system. Unfortunately, our target was apparently obvious to the Syndicate as well, as ships are already entering the system as we jump in. Fortunately, there's not even a contest in terms of numbers, as it's just one Protector heavy warship, escorted by two Splinters at the moment.

"All ships, fan out, protect the planet. Danforth, are your ground teams ready to hit them hard?" asked Tomek, as he began to issue orders. The Dreadnaughts all take defensive positions as more ships of the Syndicate begin to pour in, piece meal style. Of course, they're quick to pull back, gathering for a strike, even as my own fleet moves in to engage and keep them from forming up.

"Affirmative, keep them off us, and we'll get our target," Danforth assures us, as the first shots are fired. The battle then turns into a confusing melee as the Syndicate ships seek to break up STAR's coordinated assault. Sadly, they are working, as once again, their force is equipped with such a wide variety of weapons and armor that it just seems impossible to adapt. One of the Protectors even has six Quarg Skylances on it, forcing us to keep our distance from it, as its weapons tear through our shields in seconds, but seem to run it dry of power just as quickly.

"Danforth, hurry your ass up! We're getting torn apart here!" shouts Tomek into the comms, as his ship takes a full broadside of Hai Trackers. Luckily, one of my ships steps in to assist him, but it's still turning into a losing fight, as it seems like the stream of ships from the Syndicate is virtually endless.

"We're landing our forces now, Captain, just hold on for a few more minutes," he assures Tomek, and I'm surprised to hear wind in his comm signal. Apparently, he's leading the ground attack personally. That actually makes me smile as my sunbeams rake their way across the hull of a Splinter firing some kind of lightning cannon. The smaller ship is sent tumbling away, only for another one, this time firing ion cannons, to literally take its place. Over the next several minutes, it's just a back and forth, as our forces trade blow after devastating blow, never quite enough to break there other.

"This is Danforth to all forces, Soylent is Green, I repeat, we have the target. Bug out to the nearest system and set a course for the Deep," he orders, just as the shields on one of my ships finally gives out. We don't lose it, as two more play defense for it long enough for the Shield Beetle to jump away, soon followed by the rest of us, all setting as straight a course as we can towards the Deep. Sadly, the Syndicate is not willing to give up that easily, and the fleet follows us as we stage a fighting retreat, with other ships flying away from us as fast as possible as we do one jump after another, slowly making our way towards the Deep.

"Tannhauser Gate Control here. We've got confirmation of your flight plan. Proceed into the Deep, we'll give you as much cover as we can," comes a very welcome voice as we enter the Zosma system, as hundreds of ships pour from the twin stations, Muninn and Huginn, with support fire from the surface of Memory backing them up.

"Much appreciated Gate Control," says Danforth, his ship leaking a trail of smoke and small bits as we jump away again. With only a few ships making it through to harass us, and those breaking off as we enter the system with Valhalla, we finally have a chance to breath. Landing, I order all my pilots to rest, as those of us in charge meet up at the courthouse, and get to witness a rather interesting trial, as Alexander Soylent tries to both claim to be the head of Syndicate Finances, while also trying to absolve himself of responsibility.

"You know, it's quite a sight to see a man's sense of self preservation at war with his ego," quips Tomek as he joins us, and stories are soon traded. Apparently Alondo had reinstated Tomek's old Captain rank back when it became obvious that his skills would be necessary. After that, he'd taken command of the few ships still operating, and gone to Sol immediately. It seemed that the evidence we'd presented had put the war on hold, and in fact, Ambassadors had been exchanged, with much of the Free Worlds being returned to them, as everyone geared up for this current conflict.

"It's not the same as being at peace, not yet anyway, but it's close enough for now. Those worlds that defected to us will still probably be a source of conflict for a while, but that conflict is going to be the sort to take place at conference table, rather than a war room," he assured us, and we got back to less weighty subjects for a while. Soon enough, the trial below ended, as Alexander Soylent was led away under guard, the verdict against him guilty, with punishment to be determined later.

"So this is it?" I asked, looking down, and Tomek shook his head.

"Not quite. Your associate Darien gave us a lot of details about how their organization worked. This is going to hurt Charles, but not stop him completely. It should, however, cut him off from Syndicate resources, leaving him with just his own forces to call upon. A threat to be sure, but a far lesser one. Once the dust settles, I'm halfway positive we can-," he's cut off as his communicator beeps. Turning aside, he talks into it for a moment in soft whispers.

"WHAT?!" he shouts out at last, and then returns to whispers for a moment, before turning towards use again, a very concerned look on his face.

"There's a new wrinkle in this whole thing. The fleet that was pursuing you broke off at Tannhauser Gate, and apparently met up with another force of Syndicate ships, at least twice as strong as the previous. Now their combined force has entered the Sol system," he said, and every human in the room gasped.

"They, they're going to fight at Earth?" asked Freya in a panicked tone, and Tomek just growled.

"No, right now they're just standing there, denouncing the trial here, and telling everyone about how Alexander Soylent was 'abducted from his home' a few weeks ago by a seemingly rogue element of various other governments. Their forces in Sol are there to 'protect' the Earth, should it come under attack," he said, nearly spitting out the words as he began to turn away from us, his back tensing up.

"It's a threat. They're holding Earth itself hostage in order to try and make this go away," helpfully supplied JJ, and I couldn't argue with him. It was the sort of thing a desperate man would do, try to make his problems go away, while only really succeeding at digging himself deeper.

"I'm headed to Earth with my force. We're still independent, at least at the moment, and we can assess just how serious they are in this by seeing if they fire at us," I say at last, and that seems to cause everyone to freeze, as Bandit and Joe rise up and walk towards me.

"You, you can't do that. If they have atomics on board those ships," starts Katya, and Tomek places his hand on her shoulder.

"And they do. I can confirm isotopic signatures are coming from their ships. All of the ships in the second fleet are equipped with them. Even one of those hits Earth, and the casualties will dwarf everything our war with the Republic caused by an order of magnitude, if not more," he informs me, and I nod gravely.

"Then we can't risk it. Instead, we let the diplomats do their job. Alondo's heard, and is leading as many ships as he can to New Tibet. We meet up with him there, while the Navy and the Deep assemble their own forces. If this turns into a shooting war, we'll be ready for it," says Tomek, and as much as I want to argue with him, there's not much I can say. A few more details remain to be ironed out, but after a while, we just load ourselves back into our ships and shoot off towards New Tibet.


	67. Outside Forces

The moment we enter the Alioth system, it's obvious something is going on, as a rather panicked sounding flight controller directs my flagship and Tomek's to landing strips that had been prepared for us. Worse, the fleet that's here already is barely two Dreadnaughts with support ships, though I'm promised more are coming as we descend into the atmosphere. The moment we touch down, Alondo rushes up to us, and for the first time since the start of the war, everyone of the Free Worlds Council is together, as JJ, Freya, and Katya all embrace each other, even including Tomek in their group hug.

"You guys have no idea how good it is to see all of you," says Alondo as they finish, and then pulls out a galactic map from his pocket.

"Has the fighting started already?" asks Tomek, and Alondo looks rather flustered as she tries to answer, then just shrugs.

"We don't know, honestly. Rand was sending out a distress signal, along with about half a dozen other systems on that side of the Free Worlds, and then….nothing. All comm traffic just cut. I've been trying everything, and no one in those systems is responding, and worse, the nearby systems are in such a panic that almost no one is talking to me," he admits.

"Do you think it's the Syndicate, making their move?" I asked, and he just shrugs again.

"There's no telling, really. I want to send some ships out to check, but all things considered, we just didn't have the force for it until you guys got back," he says, and I nod, looking at the map. Several systems are greyed out, and mostly ones in the Free Worlds, but also some on the other side as well.

"So, the Syndicate's lost systems as well?" I ask, and Alondo nods at that.

"We think so. We've sent pings through the buoys, to get an idea of how everything is going, and these are breaks in the line. It could just be that's where they're staging their attacks from somehow, but I just don't know," he admits.

"Then we need to find out. My ships have jump drives, and that makes us the most suited for this task. Everyone else should remain here, just in case," I said, marching back towards my ship. It is actually Alondo who rushes over to stop me.

"I know you're not one of us, not a member of the Free Worlds, the Republic, or just about anything else, but I do want you to know, we appreciate what you're doing," he told me, and behind him, the others raised their hands.

"Here, here. We're behind you, one-hundred-and-ten-percent. Just tell us when to start the fighting, and we'll be there," says Ijs, giving me a thumbs up. A simple gesture, but I return it with a smile, before heading back to my ship. Launching back into space, we set coordinates for a system near the one Rand is in, intending on seeing what they can tell us first. Unfortunately, the entrance there is marred by panicked screams as we enter, and several blind shots fired at us. Luckily, I'm able to hold my crew back from retaliating, as the ships that fired at us shoot off into hyperspace.

Of course, it only takes me a moment to see why they're so panicked, as news reports from the planet talk about strange ships appearing in the sky, just before the hyperspace route to the Rasalhauge system vanished. Literally, it just up and vanished, and now everyone seems to be evacuating the planet below, streams of ships flying past us, as several offers and more than a few demands, for transport come from the surface. Ignoring most of it, I scan nearby data feeds, and quickly find that other systems are having the same problem.

"Admiral, those ships look just like the Pug ship Darien mentioned," said Bandit, and I nodded as we looked at the recordings of the odd alien vessel. I quickly punched in coordinates of the Rasalhauge system anyway, as my jump drives could bypass the lack of a real route.

"STAR, shoot off a message to the Council. Inform them that we think the Pug are behind this whole mess, and we're going to get to the bottom of it. They've somehow severed the connections between systems, and I'm going to do my best to keep them from expanding further," I tell him, and the android body beside me freezes up, before nodding that it's done. A moment later, we jump again, and enter a system awash with vessels, but dancing so orderly through the sky that it was like every ship was being flown by the same pilot.

"All ships, stay in formation, and do not engage unless they fire first. I repeat, nobody fire without being fired upon," I order, as we watch the ships seemingly dance around. Eventually, a few human ships rise from the surface as well, watching them carefully, I find them shooting off in a seemingly random direction, but then take note that there's a new hyperspace route out of the system, leading to a formally unconnected system.

"Well now, should we follow, or report back?" I asked myself, considering all my options. Looking over the scans of the ships, and just how many of them there were, I soon decided to risk it. We might not be able to take them, if it came to a fight, but we could at least run if the worst came to pass. Besides, we needed more information. We had to know not only how they severed, and seemingly created hyperspace links, but also if we could restore the ones that had been broken.

"All hands, brace for jump, following their vector. Again, I stress we're going there as scouts only. Do not engage," I repeated, while typing in the coordinates. With another leap we found ourselves in a new system, one that was obviously at the center of the portion of the galaxy that had been severed, and was bustling with activity, as the Pug ships, and loads of human ones under Pug escort, seemed to move at random between the two planets in the system. Quick as I could, I requested a berth, but I was waved off. The controller sounded concerned about my safety as a 'human from beyond the quarantine zone', and advised me to return to my proper space.

Not willing to challenge the sheer volume of ships, I simply watched from orbit for an hours, as still more convoys of human ships entered the system, landing on one of the two worlds, and docking at what looked like massive, segmented towers, made up of various landing platforms stacked one on top of the other. Each ship that so landed had crew come out, almost like they were in a daze, as the Pug entered their ship, usually with huge boxes. Fifteen minutes to an hour later, the Pug would come out, the box gone, and the humans would re-enter, before shooting off again, back to whence they came.

"This does not look good," said Bandit, and I agreed, quickly setting a course back for New Tibet, to inform everyone of what was going on. We passed through another human system on the way there, watching as the fleet of ships that had been on the Pug world landed. There seemed to be no difference in the ships, but the people would all fall out of their vessel, and sometimes hug the ground, or others would go around and start smashing things, usually high tech stuff.

"What in the world?" I asked, but just took as many recordings as I could, before jumping out. A few days later, we were back in orbit of New Tibet, and I was almost instantly told to come down, as the Council had made some decisions while I'd been gone.

"Good, you're here," said Tomek as I entered what was obviously a war room. A massive hologram of the galaxy hung in the air, as the Tomek and the Councilors assembled around it. Typing at his console, he zoomed in on the Sol system, rewinding the date on the display until it was a few days before we arrived at New Tibet with everyone, showing a Syndicate fleet of some size holding orbit over Earth.

"Okay, before you give us your report, I think you need to be filled in. The Syndicate fleet above Earth? It's not a concern anymore," he said, advancing the recording, showing the ships leaving the system. The view then followed them as they jumped away, into Syndicate space, getting just to the edge of it as the hyperspace route they were using collapsed.

"The rest of the galaxy seems to think the Syndicate is pulling itself away, and has developed some new technology that is allowing them to alter hyperspace routes. I assume your report will prove otherwise?" he asked, and I nodded, having STAR transmit the recordings we'd made.

"We observed the Pug in complete control of the isolated systems. No Syndicate fleet in sight. They appear to be exerting some kind of influence over the people. I can't say what they're doing, but they're obviously installing something on all the ships in what they call the quarantine zone," I tried to make the last two words sound as ominous as I could, and I actually got a shudder out of Alondo.

"That is...most disturbing. We need to present this data to the Parliament, and get them to agree to a joint operation. The problem would be how to get our ships into the zone," said JJ, obviously opening the floor to ideas.

"Then we'll need Darien's help. He mentioned while I was with him that they'd been stockpiling jump drives in Syndicate space for a while. If we can get them to give those to us, we'll be able to move in, regardless of the broken routes," said Katya, and I looked towards her.

"You're certain they'd still have them? Wouldn't they have equipped them on that fleet they sent to Earth?" I asked, and it was Freya who shook her head.

"Nah, no way to hide a jump drive from even a cursory scan. If they'd had those on those ships, they'd have been found, and I doubt anyone would have been happy about it," she said.

"Where would they be, then?" I asked, and Katya shrugged.

"I don't know specifics, but they're out of Charles' hands, I know that much. Darien mentioned they didn't trust each other with the things, so they were keeping them at a secure facility somewhere in Syndicate space, but not on Buccaneer's Den where Charles' base is," she said, zooming in on a supposed pirate system at the very edge of Syndicate space.

"Regardless, we've got to get to Earth now, to calm them down. The whole of the population there is in a panic, since they're on the edge of this quarantine zone. We need to help assure them everything is being done that can be. You and Alondo should go there, and help talk the Parliament out of doing anything too outlandish. Once we have a few moments, we'll make more definite plans for the future," said Tomek, and we both nodded. A few minutes later, with Alondo already having packed before I landed, we shot off towards Sol.


	68. Economic Troubles

After all those times of entering Sol system and finding hulls of so many varieties and masses, to find almost nothing save a few standard Navy ones is disturbing. What's worse, we're assaulted by hundreds of requests, some ordering us to take them out of system, others begging for the same through sobs, and many more offering everything they have, up to and including their bodies. I ignore them, and instead ask for a berth by the Parliament building, one that is granted by a very grateful sounding flight control.

Once landed, Alondo proceeds into the chamber, inviting me in as well, giving me my first live view of it. The space is an open one, with rows upon rows of seats, all assembled in a bowl facing towards the center, where the throne like seat is for the Prime Minister, a man who yields the floor to Alondo and myself, allowing us to take the ultimate seat of power from him. Mind, Alondo is the one to actually sit in it, as he begins to describe what I'd seen, while I stand beside him, trying my best to not look bored.

After almost an hour of back and forth with the Parliament, two things become clear. They, for all the derision I would heap upon them, are not cowardly. They refuse to abandon the Earth, and in fact, have ordered the Navy to aid in preliminary evacuation of civilians instead of themselves. The second thing is that they're desperate, as one begs me, just myself, for help. They all join in that cry, and I stand there, doing my best to look stoic, as I consider my words carefully. This is so far from where I'd pictured my leaving New Boston would take me, that I'm almost totally floored by it. Still, I take the chair from Alondo, and address them.

"People of Earth and human space, I am a Sage. My line is that of Elizabeth Sage, hero of the Alpha Wars. Once before, we have saved this species from extinction, and now again we are called upon. Let it not be said my heart is weak in the face of such events. I will do all that is within my power to end this current crisis. I warn you, however. This is only the first of it. Regaining our space will likely result in our coming to the attention of forces far greater than any we have known. Prepare yourselves for that, and know, we, as humanity, must stand together," I say simply, and then quickly rise up, leaving through an exit.

"Not a bad speech, and it shows you're thinking ahead," says a very, very infuriating voice as I enter a hall outside the Parliament Chamber. Turning to face the speaker, I find Darien, Raven, and a few others wearing Navy Intelligence uniforms, all standing in a spot I was positive was empty a few seconds ago.

"The Pug are just the servants of a bigger threat. Beating them is likely to bring the Drak, and we can't win that fight, so we've got to strike it down before we find ourselves overwhelmed," I admit, and Darien nods, before holding out what looks like a data drive to me.

"A good answer, Admiral. This is my command codes. We're assembling our forces now, Navy and others, to fight the good fight, but we need Jump Drives. I'm needed here, to help with that. So you need to go to Foundry, bring in those idiots who run the Syndicate. Tell them we're calling in every favor they owe our group. They'll know where the Jump Drives are stored, and we'll send our fleets to get them installed. Then we can take the fight to our enemies," he says, and then seems to fade away into the shadows, as if he was never there.

A few minutes after, Alondo comes out of the chamber. My speech wasn't all that inspiring, but it did do the job. The Parliament was halfway to declaring me a Dictator, someone in charge for the duration of the crisis, as I at least seemed to know what I'm doing. I fill him in on what Darien said, and he nods, telling me the Navy fleets are already assembling at the edge of Syndicate space, waiting for the order to go in. The Deep and Free Worlds will be sending ships to join them as soon as possible, and all three forces can then get the Jump Drives installed. With that plan in mind, we leave Earth behind, and set course for the headquarters of the Syndicate.

We encounter almost no resistance on the way in. A few Quicksilvers firing potshots at us, but those are ignored as we jump into the system with Foundry, and eventually are given a berth near a private estate. Landing there, we're quickly shuffled into the building by a panicked butler type, who's sweating bullets as he escorts us to a room that I can only describe as a throne room, with a man sitting in a chair, looking very concerned at us. It takes me a minute to recognize him as one of the old men we'd seen on Hephaestus before the big fighting had started a few months ago.

"Alastair Korban, CEO of the Syndicate Corporation," identified Alondo as he walked up to him. The man acknowledged him with a nod of the head, and then motioned for us to take seats at a table before his throne. We did so, and he pushed a button to bring up a galactic map hologram in front of us.

"I assume you are here about the alien threat, attacking human space?" he asked, and before Alondo could respond, I laughed, a barking, loud thing, to draw attention to myself.

"We're here for many reasons, Mr. Korban, including that. First among our efforts, we need to know how much you're under Charles' thumb now, so we can see how far we can trust you," I told him, and the name actually seemed to cause the old man to stiffen, just a slight bit.

"I'm afraid I have no idea who you're ta-BANG!" I cut him off by slamming my fist into the table, getting the hologram to distort for a moment.

"I am a very, very busy man, Mr. Korban, so I have no time for pretenses. I know Charles, an Omega and leader of Alphas, is in your space, and has been puppeteering the Syndicate for at least a few decades, if not centuries. We know, also, that he planned on bombing the Earth with nuclear weapons. Now, you are going to tell us if you knew about that, and you are going to tell us now," I said, in a very quiet, but menacing tone. Alondo, for his part, played the silent partner, looking sternly at the man, who whipped his sweating brow with a handkerchief.

"I...yes, we had business relations with a man like that. He came to our predecessors a few centuries before I took up the reigns. We never questioned how he could live so long, as we knew his associates had green skin. However, his offer was simply too enticing," as he spoke, he pressed a few buttons on his chair, and the galactic map was replaced, this time with a program interface that I didn't recognize.

"He called it the Zero system. He claimed a group called the Epsilons developed it for him. It was a predictive algorithm, designed for battle, but adapted to economics. Using it, we could literally see exactly where the markets would go up and down, on a planet by planet, and even city by city basis. With it, we became even greater, turning us from merely the producers of goods, into the strongest economic force in the galaxy," he said, and I just nodded dumbly, as if I understood the streams of numbers flying over the program's face.

"And your predecessors trusted him?" asked Alondo, and it was Alistair's turn to bark out a laugh.

"Of course they didn't. He was an Alpha, or as good as. They knew he was probably only looking out for himself, and besides, they copied the system for their own use. It was almost a century later, when we were just settling into our power, that he struck at us," he said, sounding defeated.

"He turned off the system somehow," I said, realizing how easy it would have been to install some backdoor in a program like that.

"He did, and those in charge were thrown into a panic. They'd become reliant on the system, always telling them exactly what they needed to grow the business end. Without it, the Syndicate could collapse in on itself, and with it, the entire galactic economy. For the good of everyone, we needed that system, and so they turned to him," we looked at each other, a silent word passing between us. We knew why they'd done it, and it hadn't been for anyone's good but their own. We left that unsaid, however, as he continued.

"You'd think he'd demand something major of us, for turning back on the system. They'd expected him to ask for a controlling share, or something like it, but when it came down to it, all he wanted was access. To us, to our companies. Not control, just the ability to tweak things here and there. Hell, within a year he was making positive changes, improving our outputs, and putting new designs into the works that seemed years ahead of anything we had at the time," he sighed at this point, as if lamenting a golden age long since passed.

"Then he added funds. A century or so ago he began to simply give us money for his projects, and we lapped it up. By the time I took control he was so far in control of everything that I was just a figurehead. We all were, but we didn't care. Life was improving all over the galaxy, and we were at the center of it all. Oh, a few places got a bit worse for wear, but it wasn't going to last. Soon, we'd see a true renaissance, an age of peace and prosperity for all," he said the last in the tone one would use to speak of a great man.

"My money. He was giving you money my family earned through investments, that his group has been stealing since the time of my great-grandfather," I said in answer, and that seemed to bring him up short, as I was positive he knew who I was from my face alone after that speech in Parliament.

"We, well, we didn't know that. We understood, of course, that his funds might be coming from illicit ventures, but so much, and without attracting the Navy's attention It seemed less than likely," he said, as if to respond. I didn't, just motioning for him to continue his story.

"About two decades ago is when the first problems began to crop up. The Zero system seemed always to give predictions of market collapses, or recessions and the like. At best we could slow it down, but it was impossible to stop. In a century, the galaxy would be gripped by a Great Depression the likes of which hasn't been seen since before we launched into space. We knew drastic action would be needed to stop it," that made the two of us glare at him.

"You mean you turned to Charles and his group?" I asked, and he quickly shook his head.

"No, no, of course not. We still knew who they were, and we knew their answer might be worse than the problem. Instead we did our best to stockpile and prepare. Centralizing ourselves here in our space, and pulling out of other areas," he said, and this time it was Alondo who slammed his hand on the table.

"That was when you bastards pulled up stakes and left the South to itself. It's thanks to you that we had so many pirate strongholds and the like down there. You left the equipment behind, and took the Navy ships with you. Once there was no one to stop them, and the local governments were forbidden to use the left behind material, those who didn't care about the law did," he said in an almost growl.

"There were some minor reports of that, yes. We believed it would work itself out, however. The collapse of the economy would happen in that area, after all, and would weaken any pirate force by simply denying them anything to steal," said the man in the throne, acting like we were attacking him. We sat there staring at him until he finally moved on with the story.

"After that, we discovered that the models only improved slightly, a bit of a percentage point, and we began to panic, trying everything we could think of to stimulate economic growth and stability. Then, a few years ago, Charles and his group, as you call them, stopped paying us, and in fact, began to pull out of our joint ventures," as he spoke, I nodded.

"About when I left New Boston. He lost the money, and was going to try and capture me again," I said simply.

"I see. When he returned he did seem a trifle miffed. Regardless, he had a new plan. The Zero system had been predicting for some time that the Southern Systems would be withdrawing from the Republic, actually alleviating the economic burden on the galaxy. He, however, inserted new data, and told us there would be a long, and costly, cold war between the Free Worlds and the rest of the galaxy," his tone became more withdrawn as he spoke those word, obviously knowing neither Alondo nor myself really wanted to hear them.

"He offered us a chance, a way to aid his group in shortening the cold war to only a few years, maybe even months, as opposed to the decades and centuries that were predicted. We didn't ask how, just punched the data into the system, and found that, if the war were to be hot, as we believed he was planning, the economy of the galaxy would actually recover, and we wouldn't have the downturn. As such, we provided him with the materials he requested. Fissionable materials," he said the last two words in almost a whisper.

"You did WHAT?!" demanded Alondo, hopping out of his chair and nearly flipping the table over. I quickly grabbed it to prevent that, and then placed a calming hand on his shoulder, silently requesting he sit down. After a few deep, furious breathes, he did just that, but we were both staring daggers at the man before us now.

"We know, we know, but at the time, it seemed the only way to preserve the galactic way of life. We believed it was all for the greater good," Alastair looked completely defeated, as he spoke those words, obviously picturing what his future was going to be when this got out.

"And then you sold to both sides of our war, helping us build up larger, and larger forces, until finally it all came crashing down thanks to the Pug," finished Alondo, and Alastair just nodded sadly at the assessment.

"What about that fleet above Earth? It had nukes on it too. Were those yours, or his?" I asked, and Alastair looked ready to collapse in on himself.

"They were, they were our's," he admitted at last, in a very low tone, neither of us said anything in response as we sat there, letting him stew, before he bolted upright.

"We were panicked! We didn't know what to do. The Zero system was still working, but every model it spit out was worse than the last. We finally decided to send the fleets we had, as many ships as we could assemble," he explained.

"And what happened to them?" asked Alondo.

"We realized how foolish we were, and ordered them to withdraw, especially after realizing how much of what we'd done had been at Charles' urgings of late. Then the Pug appeared. They tore our fleet apart, and started to steal systems from us. Now...we have no fleets, only a few ships to defend ourselves with. We must ask for the assistance of the Free Worlds, the Navy, the Deep, anyone! Who can help us," he shouted, before slumping down into his chair. We sat there again, the two of us considering, while he looked like a man waiting for the executioner's axe to fall.

"Alright, here's what we do," I said at last, and pointed at the map.

"What system are the Jump Drives stored in, and how many do you have?" I asked, and he pushed a button and typed some commands into a small controller. The map zoomed in on the system with Hephaestus in it.

"We stored them here. There's currently nine-hundred-eighty-six drives, taken from the Korath ships that periodically appear on our eastern border," he informed us.

"You said you still had some ships. Are they just Quicksilvers, or do you have larger vessels. Specifically tankers?" I followed up, planning things in my head.

"A few tankers. It was too much trouble to retrofit them for combat, and besides, the goods still needed to flow," he answered, and I nodded.

"Okay, fill those tankers up as high as they'll go. We'll get the fleet over the uninhabited systems, and into Syndicate space from Republic. Then we'll get to Hephaestus as quickly as possible. Once we've got as large a fleet as we can, we'll take the fight to the Pug, and hopefully, win," I said, and Alastair popped out of his seat, nodding furiously, as he quickly ran out of the room, shouting over his shoulder about how it would be done as quickly as he could make it happen.

"We'll meet the fleet there. Come on Alondo," I said, and we left the building, on our way to the hardest fight we'd faced yet.


	69. Preparing for Battle

We landed on Hephaestus to find them already hard at work activating and testing jump drives. Sadly, about every twentieth one seemed to have 'died' and refused to power up, but at the end of the day, we were doing everything we could. Reports were already coming in, that the assembled fleets were being pared down to just the heavy hitters and their direct supports. Everything else was assembling at Sol, where, Luck willing, we'd find a way to reactivate the path to Vega, so that force could sweep in and at least try and take the Pug on.

"I'm not feeling good about this," said Tomek in a conference with Danforth. The two were still several systems away, both being refueled, but we could talk through the relay system.

"Neither am I, Voigt. We have a lot of data on their ships, but nothing on how they operate. What sort of formations do they use, and more importantly, what formations work best against them," responded the Navy admiral, looking over scans of the ships I'd taken while in Pug space.

"Sage, I hate to ask this of you, but we need more information," said the Free Worlds captain at last, looking at me.

"I won't go attacking them, if that's what you're asking. My force is powerful, but we're not really soldiers," I commented, looking out towards where my captains were partying it up in the local cafes, creating quite the ruckus as they lived for the moment, most expecting this to be their last few days of life.

"No, no we'd never ask that of a civilian pilot. Instead, we want you to try and make overtures of peace with them. We know it's a long shot, we really do, but you didn't get the chance to try last time. This time, we want you going in as the official representative of humanity. To warn them if they don't return our worlds, there will be war," he said, and Danforth added his agreement.

"I'd agree to go with you, Sage. I am the diplomat, after all. Perhaps the two of us together can somehow get through to them," he says emphatically, and I want to tell them it's hopeless, but I can see all three really do want to give this a shot. That is why, a few hours later, my flagship is jumping into Pug space alone, so I can at least appear non-violent. Interestingly, making my way to the Deneb system, at the center of the occupied systems, this time I'm quickly given a berth in one of the weird structures, and Alondo and myself are quickly met by a Pug.

It looked like any other member of the species I'd seen from orbit. About seven feet high, its body looked squished in the middle, like the torso had been crushed in some massive fist. The head was a bulbous thing, almost twice the size of the chest, with two huge black eyes, and a very small nose and mouth, while the limbs, two arms and two legs, were like stick figures, moving with a slowness that belied their power given the heavy weights I'd seen some of them lifting. Of course, this close, I could also see the teeth of one of them, something I hadn't seen before. They were like a shark's, with row upon jagged row of the things, looking easily able of ripping through steel or flesh, as the need arose.

"Greetings Earth Children, I am the Pug. Have you come to take the Pledge of Loyalty and Peacefulness, joining yourself to the Protectorate?" it asked in a whistling voice, sounding like a flute or something, ending every word with an odd tone. For a moment, just a second, I was tempted to ask what I needed to do to take the Pledge, and I could see Alondo ready to do the same, at least until one of STAR's androids made a buzzing sound, and my head cleared.

"Sub-harmonic vocalizations. A trick used repeatedly in human history. It makes those exposed more susceptible to suggestions," supplied the AI helpfully, and the Pug was staring daggers at the silver skinned humanoid, who didn't react.

"Cute, at least now we know how they're getting people to do what they want," said Alondo, rubbing his ears with his fingers, before we both turned on the alien.

"You are not to be controlled. Such beings are not allowed in the quarantine zone. You are ordered to return to your space, until such time as you can be processed," he demanded, but we didn't back down, even when he did that whistling trick again. Knowing what it was didn't quite make us immune, but it certainly helped us resist it.

"I think we won't be doing that. Instead, we will be ordering you. A large force of human vessels will be coming here, one strong enough to kick you out of this system, and the worlds you've stolen entirely. We were hoping we could prevent the shedding of too much blood, and have you simply give us back what has been taken," said Alondo, and the Pug blinked, an expression I could almost read as shocked, as its sideways lids covered its massive eyes a few times.

"You are a tier two civilization, there is no way you have a force large enough to do as you claim," it said, and started to turn away, but I quickly ran in front of it.

"And what about my ships, huh? The ones I flew in here a few weeks ago?" I demanded, and the Pug closed its eyes for a moment.

"An aberration, true, but not outside known parameters. Your force will be taken, as all will be. Your species is being processed. That is the way of things," it said, and then pushed me out of the way. A simple gesture, that actually sent me flying several feet, and when Alondo and the droid rushed over to me, it simply walked to the exit.

"Well now, at least I won't feel bad about killing these things," I said, rubbing my chest where it had shoved, which was already developing a nice purple bruise. Alondo insisted we try to contact them again, maybe learn something else, but I overruled him, and a few minutes later, we were back in space.

"How'd you know about that trick with the sub-harmonics?" I asked as I plotted a course back to Hephaestus.

"Darien's information contained numerous files on the Pug they studied, and suggested that it might be the case. As it was one of a variety of possibilities for their control method, I did not feel right bringing it up before," he told me. I accepted that, and we jumped out, and then again, arriving to find the fleet starting to trickle in a smaller ships with larger tanks were already reaching the world. Tomek, it turned out, had specifically been on one of those fast ships, and was already waiting at a makeshift office constructed out of what had been a bar.

"Well then, a real bust that was," said Tomek as we gave our report on what had happened. I didn't argue with him, as he offered me a drink. Taking a swig, finding it to be a nice bracing whiskey, I downed the glass in a single pull, and then held it out to be refilled.

"So, how do we respond to that? I mean, you were lucky you had an AI with the ability to snap you out of it. Not every ship is so lucky," he said, and I actually grinned a bit, hiding my smile behind my drink as I realized that he was right, and that I really, really needed to visit a casino once this was over.

"It's not that bad, in actuality. The sound itself would actually be really easy to filter, and that's if we bother picking up at all. I doubt they can force themselves through our monitors," said Freya, as she gently sipped at a cup of tea. Tomek had said the engineer had insisted on coming along, and had actually been helping in the installation of the jump drives, so none of us argued with her overmuch, even at her insistence on accompanying the fleet into battle, once it was assembled.

"What about ground combat though? If they can somehow use sound to get our troops fighting each other, we'd be at a real disadvantage. Not to mention those already under their sway," he opined into the discussion, and Freya nodded, before grabbing a pad from his desk. She quickly began to use the tools in it to sketch out a rough drawing, and then slapped it down on the table.

"STAR said he could disrupt it with that tone he used on Alondo and Sage. It wouldn't take much to convert, say, a few dozen fighters to have external speakers loud enough to be heard over the whole planet. Have them do sweeps over populated areas to free them, and keep a few in reserve to provide back up to ground troops," she said, and we looked over her schematics. A few minutes later, the docks were saying they could have a few fresh fighters built, by the time the fleets arrived.

"That's one problem nipped in the bud. For now, I say we take a break. We're on edge, and we all know what's coming. Sage, your captains are all on leave, and I insist you take one yourself. I don't know how long it has been since you've had a break, but for right now, there's no crisis looming, and the big battle is still a few days off. As one old soldier to another, I advise you relax," said Tomek, and he offered me a flask, before shuffling me out of the room, Freya joining me a few minutes later.

"So, what does a man like you do in his down time, anyway?" she asked, and then smiled at me, brandishing another bottle of her liquor, and then offering it to me. The two of us then caught a quick cab ride to the hotel district, and spent the days before the assault with one another, Bandit and Joe sometimes peeking in on us, to give me status updates on the fleet. In that time, I learned the genius engineer was a hard, strong woman, who really, really liked to play rough, though I liked to think I gave as good as I got during that time.

"Ugh, I'll get it," I said, rolling out of the bed we'd been on and going over to the wall. Pressing a button, I was shown Tomek's face, the face of a man who was working on far too few hours of sleep, but he did his best to smile at me as he saw the room behind me.

"Ah, nice to see you two had some fun. We've got the fleet ready to go, however, and would appreciate you being in space in the hour. I've already had your two alien associates get your fleet in orbit," he said, before closing the channel. Sighing, I looked back at Freya as she grabbed her work clothes from a pile in the corner of the room, stripping out of her robe as I did the same.

"Okay, well, I suppose this is as good a time as any," I said with a grin, and she threw a sock at me.

"Yeah, yeah. You're just happy cause you got lucky again. I know if I'd had a few more rolls I could have landed on free parking and gotten that pot. Then we'd have seen who's got the best business sense," she said, closing the monopoly game board, the holograms it generated fading away, before finishing getting her clothes on. An hour later, we were on board my flagship, and launching off to join the fleet. Our first target, the Delta Capricorni system, and the world Maker within it.


	70. On the Offensive

It was an odd feeling, to leap into a system, knowing that not everyone in my fleet would be making it out again. I mean, I'd seen it a few times, I'd fought in huge battles, but somehow, I'd always come through, and my people seemed to be protected by my Luck. Now, there was just this niggling feeling in the back of my mind as we formed up, every ship getting into perfect formation. Syncing drives, we all leapt into the unknown at the same time, in a way that, according to the Syndicate guys who'd been studying the drives, would keep us together.

"All forces, attack!" shouted Tomek's voice over the comms as the system resolved out of blue fire, and we found ourselves facing an almost solid wall of Pug ships. The living vessels, with their conelike bodies and odd branches off the back, were assembled in what was obviously a battle formation, and they came towards us with hostile intent. We gave them no warning, of course, as the larger vessels opened up their bays, spilling fighters, and everything with missiles or torpedoes let loose their fury.

Suddenly, space was filled with dancing lights, as the Pug ships fired defensive lasers destroying as much of the incoming fire as they could, but so much force was not to be denied, and the first blood went to humanity, as the larger Pug ships took several hits, shield buckling on the strain, and allowing the payloads direct access to their hulls. Better, the smaller ships couldn't even take that, dozens of them vanishing in balls of light, leaving gaps in their line as they charged forward.

Unfortunately, their ships were not like ours. Those that were damaged showed that, as organic hulls, now wounded, they could mend themselves before our eyes, and the loss of dozens was barely felt in a fleet that numbered easily five times what our own force did. Even as a second volley was sent, they grew close enough to counterattack, and we were forced to scatter, as huge, powerful orbs of plasma tore through our formations, some tracking their targets, others exploding ahead like flares to blind us.

Then came the lightning. The weapons I'd seen on a Protector while kidnapping Soylent from the Syndicate were now here with those who knew how to use them. They weren't as powerful as Skylances, not even close, but so many of them, fired at this range were still more than enough to rip large gaps in our fleet. My own vessel shuddered as two jagged bolts slammed into our port side, causing the ship to divert course, and nearly slamming us into our companions, before I wrested us back into line.

Then we opened up everything. The lightning now competed against green, blue, and yellow bolts of light. It didn't arc or change course, and instead smashed directly into the Pug ships. Shields held in some of the larger vessels, but the smaller ones would find themselves speared on several lances of light, their hulls blowing open, and when the bolt had passed, leaving them almost hollow and venting gas in two directions, before they exploded like spectacular fireworks celebrating the battle.

Not to say the pass went well for us, as more than a few of our ships were rendered into so much slag. A Dreadnaught, its hull pulled back so it could fire its weapons, went up in a blinding flash as one of the generators inside breached. It still managed to take a few enemy capitals with it as it went up, so there was that. At the other end of a battle, a carrier opened its bays, and bombers poured out of it, launching their bombs almost immediately, and utterly obliterating a large Pug ship, even as the carrier itself was ripped in half by lightning bolts from other such ships around it.

"This is RNC Victory, our compliment of bombers is going to need a n-SCREECH," the message went to static as the ship exploded, and the bombers dropped more of their payloads on the ships that had destroyed their home in revenge. Lightning bolts played amidst the swarm, and I watched as more than one went up in a fireball. By the end, however, the ships were expanding clouds of vapor, and the depleted squadron of bombers peeled away as more Pug ships flew into position.

"Victory Bomber Wing, this is the RNC Intrepid, we'd be glad to take you on and give you some more weapons, but we're kind of being swarmed here," said another voice, and I turned to find another carrier in peril, as several of the smaller ships hammered it, battering at its shields with more lightning and bolts of light. I was about to offer assistance when two ships, a pair of Dreadnaughts, come up beside it. Almost in an exact repeat of what had happened Trinket, the pair fly to the sides of the carrier, and let loose a barrage. When the light clears, only one of the Pug ships remains, and that one is destroyed quickly by the carrier's own point defenses.

"Bomber Wing, this is Knight Three of the Free Worlds. We've cleared the way, now bring those beauties home and get some more teeth in them," came the comm.

"This is Bomber Leader, thank you Knight Three, we'll be sure to give em hell for you," says a second voice, and I feel like laughing. The sight of those ships, fighting together, would have been comical even a few weeks ago, and now, they're working like a well oiled machine. My own forces are doing the same, Shield Beetles easily slotting in and out of the fight, destroying targets one after another. Of course, there are so many foes, that even my forces are being overwhelmed at times.

"This is Orsai of the Kethor, my weapons and shields have sustained critical damage, I repeat, I'm just about dead in the water," says a voice almost a half hour into the battle, as I blow my way through another Pug formation. Bringing up the tactical screen, I see the damaged ship, which is almost a light hour away at my best speed. Not a chance I could get to him.

"Kethor, I've got you on my scope. Tritus moving in to provide assistance," a second voice says, and one of the ships breaks off an attack run to move towards the disabled vessel.

"Negative Tritus, maintain attack run. Just give me a moment, and I'll make you an opening," the first voice informs us, and then the ship, lacking shields or weapons, dives into the nearest group of Pugs. We watch as the Shield Beetles armor takes blow after blow, long gouges being rent into the hull, leaking fire and static, as the voice turns into a warcry. The last moment cuts off just as the ship slams into a large Pug command ship, detonating her core at the moment of impact, and creating a hole in their line, into which our forces advance.

"Tomek to all forces, we've got them now. Don't let up!" came the voice, and he got a thousand cries in answer, as the combined fleet charged at the enemy again vigor seemingly renewed by the sacrifice of a single life. Soon, the Pug forces, always willing to sacrifice ten of theirs if it could take even one of ours, find themselves without a ship to their name, as the final small frigate is reduced to atoms by the guns of Tomek's personal Cruiser, leaving the system in a deathly quiet for a long time, as we assess the damage.

"We've won the battle, but the war is far from over. All ships, assist with search and rescue. Save as many people, and salvage what you can. We have at least one more fight ahead of us," he says, sounding so very tired. Looking beside me, I can see Joe, Bandit, and Freya are almost as rattled. A quick glance at the ship's clock tells me the battle, for all the ships involved, took only an hour, but the damage. Not one Pug ship survived, and at a glance, we lost almost twenty-percent of our forces total, with almost as many damaged to disable.

"Sage, are you there?" says Danforth's voice, and I quickly rally myself, smacking my face to wake myself up all the way.

"Here, Admiral. What do you need?" I asked.

"I'll be relying on you for search and rescue. Your ships with those hulls of theirs should be able to repair most of our losses that aren't dead yet, and get the crews out of those that are. In the meantime, Freya's fighters are sweeping the planet," as he spoke, STAR helpfully provided a tactical map, showing the planet, which little images of the fighters as they flew overhead, showing areas that had been hit by the sound, and those yet to be covered.

"I'm going to be sending my people down as soon as the sweep's done, though it's looking better than we could have hoped for the immediate future, and worse than we feared for the long term," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked through a daze.

"Well, we've not detecting a single Pug on the surface, and what reports we're getting from those down there says they pulled out the moment they knew we were coming, after grounding every human. Unfortunately, the people down there were still under their thrall, and it sounds like just about anything more advanced than a sharp stick down there got smashed to bits. Heck, I think they said someone was actually breaking the sticks just in case," I recognized he was trying to add some levity to the situation, but I was too worn out to offer more than an insincere chuckle at the joke.

"Regardless, they've got some device down there, Pug stuff, that I want our best people to look at. Freya, once the ground is confirmed clear, would you be up for it?" he asked Ms. Winters, and the woman seemed to perk up at the mention of alien tech.

"Of course Admiral, just point me at it, and I'll get it running again," she said hopefully, and he nodded, leaving us to our task, and his to his own. It would take hours yet to clean up from this battle, but overall, we knew we were on the track to victory.


	71. Between Fights

It's almost midnight, ship's time, when we finally descend into the atmosphere. Above us, you can still see the twinkling lights of ships as they fly around, trying to make the best of bad situations. Hulls too heavily damaged to use in the coming fight are towed into out of the way orbits around Maker's largest moon. It was hoped that, when all this was over, perhaps those resources could be used to help rebuild the world below. That was, of course, reliant upon us winning the coming battles.

"Hmm, weird, I'm getting some odd gravity readings. Wait, back up," she says the last while the view of the ground below scrolls, and then moves backwards focusing on what looks like a large transmitter of some sort, with a dish pointed into the sky. Freya quickly brings the thing up on her screen, and with a blinding speed, almost as quick as Ijs back when we were searching for the bomb test sites, she runs scan after scan on the thing. Eventually, she orders me to put us down as close as possible, which is made easier by a seemingly precleared site nearby.

"Yes, yes, yes!" she shouts as she runs off the bridge. Giving Bandit and Joe a quick look, I run after her, finding her already at the ramp, and leaping off onto what I can now clearly see is an artificially constructed landing pad, as the rock is sheared clean and glossy. Like a large amount of heat was used to flatten it. The stuff is cool enough now, that she has little trouble rushing towards the device, her palmtop computer flipping open as she runs the scanner in it over the device.

"I take it this is the thing that severed the hyperspace route?" I asked, joining her, and Freya shakes her head.

"Not severed, that would be impractical. Do you realize how much energy it would take to actually sever a lane like that?" she counters, and I just shrug, causing her to set her computer down, as she turns to me.

"Okay, tell me, do you know how a hyperdrive works?" she asked, and I open my mouth to say of course I do, but then close it again, as I realize the answer is, no, no I do not. I know how it feels, of course, having been subject to such devices for almost a year before gaining jump drives, but had never stopped to really study the device. The look on my face must have said it all, as Freya chuckles and smiles at me.

"Don't feel too bad, a lot of people don't know how they work. To put it at its most simple, a hyperdrive unthreads your atoms, stringing them out, as a single particle can move faster than a whole object. Not as much gravitational drag and the like. Of course, while there's a lot of atoms in your body, and even more in a ship like a Shield Beetle, there's not nearly enough, chained end to end to reach another star. Trying to do so without help simply strains the thread of atoms to the breaking point, and it snaps," she picked up a rock and smashed it against a nearby boulder to make a sound effect to go with the last word.

"That's what happened to a lot of those early explorers. They picked the wrong vector, and they just unraveled. Hyperspace routes between stars are actually gravitational eddies, rivers of gravity in a way, that allow the threads to stretch farther before breaking. In order to 'sever' them, you'd literally have to be able to change the gravitational constant of the universe. If I'd even believed for a second these Pug or whatever's behind them were powerful enough to do that, I'd have said we should just curl up and die, for all the good this fighting's doing us," she explained, in a tone like she'd given this a lot more thought than I had.

"Is that threading why it takes a day to jump anywhere?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Yes. Transmissions are waves, they can travel instantly, given the right tech behind them, but physical matter has to rethread itself together. Doing that is basically ninety-five percent of what a hyperdrive does. Your jump drive works on a similar principle, except rather than sending the atoms through real space, it pushes them through tiny wormholes it makes, threading the needle with the atoms, and letting you go anywhere," she explains, and I scratch my chin in thought. That was not how it felt, to use the jump drives, but Freya was the engineer, not me.

"Anyway, I figured they must be doing something to the route, some kind of masking signal that was keeping us from seeing it somehow. This thing is indeed doing that," she said, smacking her hand against the construct.

"So, you're figuring out how to turn it off?" I asked, and she quickly shook her head.

"That's easy, blow it to bits, and it'll be as off as any other pile of melted metal. I came down here because I wanted to get some scans of this thing. I figure, given what Darien said, there's probably lots of machines like this, all over the galaxy. If we destroy them, we'll reopen closed routes," she said, picking up her computer as it pinged, and then motioning for us to head back to the ship. Once there, we launched into the sky a few hundred feet, and then she took a bit too much pleasure in firing the twin sunbeam turret, two beams of yellow light striking the device and simply vaporizing it.

"Yes, it's working. I'm getting a yellow reading on the route back to Hephaestus. We'll be able to send a transmission back to human space now, and in a few hours, we should have a green link for sending ships through," she says, as we rejoin the fleet in orbit. Getting Danforth and Tomek on the line, they're both overjoyed as we tell them the good news.

"Then we have a chance. We should proceed to the Altair system next. If we can liberate it, the system links not only with Sol, but with Deneb, so we'd be able to send our entire force right into the enemy's heart," said Danforth.

"I thought we were going to use Vega for that. Doesn't it meet those same requirements?" I asked as we slowly fell back into formation.

"It does, but I made that plan when I thought the repair facilities on Vega would be operational. I've got scouts there now, and they're reporting that the enemy trashed those completely, and currently has a massive force stationed there. I've been drawing more of them in since, using probing attacks. Their forces at Altair are by far weaker, and Shiver is reporting at least a few orbital stations are still active. If we can keep them that way long enough, we'll be golden," explained the Navy Admiral, and Tomek nodded.

"Agreed. We've got them with their pants down, and it would be a shame to waste that opportunity. Still, you're the leader here, Sage. It's your call," he said, and both of the men turned to me.

"I'm not the one here with training at this sort of thing, so I'll back whatever plan you two have," i admitted, and the pair smile at that, possibly thinking, in the back of their minds, about leaders who didn't like changing their minds when new details were on the board. It took only a few minutes for everyone to get into their positions, and with another jump, we leapt once more into the fray.


	72. On the Defensive

Arriving in Altair, we were confronted by a single large Pug ship, with a dozen attendant vessels. Despite our overwhelming numerical superiority, the small force gathered up and threw itself at us, lighting and shots blazing through space. In space of five minutes, they were vapor, and Danforth deployed the special fighters, while also scanning local space. Only a few of the orbital platforms remained in good condition, but he quickly confirmed those that did, and I assigned a few of my ships to them, while Freya searched the planet below for our target.

"Got it!" she said after what felt like an eternity. She took control of the turret with a gesture, and a heartbeat later, my flagship blasted out at the enemy installation, blowing the top off a mountain in the bargain. The instant it was down, we began receiving chatter from Earth. Most of it was general stuff, including Captains and other sorts asking for updates, but Tomek and Danforth quickly silenced them. The path was still yellow, but the moment it turned green, they ordered everyone to Altair.

"So, do we jump out to Sol then, to form up with the fleet?" I asked, and Freya shook her head, eyeing the tactical display nervously.

"We can't risk it. While I'm more than certain those devices need a planet to act as a brace for their beams, it could be far too simple for them to set them up. We have to keep this system clear. That means defending it, and keeping the Pug from getting a beachhead down below," she said, and I was about to say something, when the scope lit up. Suddenly empty space was full of blue fire, fire that resolved into a fleet that wasn't quite as large as the previous one at Maker, but was still large enough to be problematic, especially considering our fleet wasn't that large anymore either.

"All ships, form up, and defend the planet. Don't let a single one through," ordered Tomek, and our forces gathered in an almost solid wall of human hulls, standing against the cone shaped hulls of the Pug. For what seemed like an eternity, the two forces just hung in space, a quiet settling amongst the stars, before some signal seemed to spread through the aliens. A rippling charge began, and ships flew towards us, soon being obscured as long range missiles and torpedoes tore through the space between.

Like stars, they twinkled blindingly in the dark, before impacting the hulls of the enemy fleet. Each explosion shuddered through the Pug ships, some being consumed in fire, while others merely slowed down, leaking their insides into space. Oddly, the ships didn't stop to assist, and in fact more than one of their number smashed into the disabled ships, both being destroyed by the impact. Senseless death and destruction didn't even slow the charge down, and soon enough, they reached our firing range.

Everything erupted into a confusing melee, as ships, projectiles, and lightning crossed in a maddening riot before me. Around me, I felt more than heard the three women shouting over each other. Freya on repair duty kept a running status report as she quickly adjusted and readjusted shields and the nanites, keeping the hull from being breached, even as shot after shot rang against it. Bandit, with her single arm, was on the forward weapons, taking every opportunity to fire at an enemy that flew before us, while beside her, Joe was on the turret, lances of yellow flashing out in wild directions, trying to do what damage they could.

I try to keep an eye on the tactical screen, but the fighting quickly gets too intense to even follow, mostly due to our position. Where before we'd been the attackers, trying to drag the Pug out of position, now we were on the ones playing defense. Luckily, the Pug weren't fighting like we had. Their ships flew in at seeming random, engaging at the first opportunity, and allowing us to chose the engagement. Unluckily, we had to keep formation, had to hold the line, against the tide of our foes.

We fought on for what felt like hours, shots coming in fast and furious, my skills as a pilot being put to the ultimate test as I dodged lightning, while still lining up shots for Bandit. I fought back against every hit, the ship rocking, and the gravity plating straining to adjust with our movement, forcing me back into my chair as I pulled a loop-de-loop, getting us behind one of the larger Pug ships, so Bandit and Joe could blast its engines to hot slag, even as Freya's fingers flew, trying to keep up with the damage reports.

"Sage, something big is coming in!" shouted Freya from her station suddenly, and it felt like the battle stopped for a heartbeat. Blue fire spawned again, but where before it had been spread out, this was focused, a single vessel resolving out of the light, ready to blast its way through our defenses. Pulling away from the ongoing furball, I got us into range to see it, and my heart almost stopped as I looked at the thing. It's look, and the stats on it were almost unimaginable compared to what we'd been fighting thus far.

"An Arfecta," said Bandit in a breathless tone, gazing at it. While it had the basics of a Pug, with a conical bridge that was attached to a long series of 'root's coming out of its rear that contained engines and weapons, this one was far larger. At almost ten times the size of a Shield Beetle, it outmassed anything in the battle by a wide margin, and what's worse, the readings from its power core were at the very top of our charts, making it stronger even than the Drak we'd fought back in Korath space all those months ago.

"You know what that is?" asked Joe as she took aim, and Bandit nodded, looking numb to the world.

"I've, I've heard legends of it. A living ship, used by a certain species, but intermingled with technology. It's said to be able to devour the stars themselves, and even the Rings shake in fear at the sight of it," she said, and we all look at her, our minds processing what she just said for a moment, before the other shoe drops. The tip of the Arfecta glows, like a new star struggling to be born, and Freya cries out.

"I'm getting gravity distortion readings from it, similar to the device from the surface. It's...somehow it's increasing its mass shadow, making it as heavy a planet," said the human woman, and we all went wide eyed at that.

"How long till it severs the hyperspace route again?" I ask, and she just shakes her head.

"Not nearly enough data, but if it does, we're dead. No way we could keep this defense up if they send anything else at us," said Freya, a bit of panic leaking into her voice as I turn and stare at my foe. Looking at it, a cone attached to a body made of sharp points, interwoven with metal, as if it were the antithesis of the more rounded edges of the Pug, I make my choice. Pushing a control, I open a fleet wide channel.

"All STAR Fleet assets, we've got a priority target. That thing is trying to undo all the good work we've done. Engage it right now. I don't care how we do it, but we've got to take that thing out," I ordered, even as I gunned the drive as hard as it would go. As if they'd been waiting for the order, dozens of Shield Beetles join with me, forming up around me as we dive towards the target, which sits there in space like it were dead thing. Moments before we're in range, the star at the front of the thing vanishes in a flash of light.

"I'm still getting massive power readings from it, but it's distributing them now to the pointy ends around its body. They might be some kind of weapon emplacements," advised Freya as we charged, and it was with a glance at her console that my heart stopped, as I recognized the readings, and quickly turned. I grunted under the strain, as memories of the Drak at Avalon that had used the exact same weapon danced around in my head. There, I'd been Lucky enough to not lose a single ship.

"All ships, scatter! Those are antimatter cannons!" I cried, too late to do much good, as the sharp points discharged massive projectiles, as large as Furies, that hit our line hard. The shots that hit Shield Beetles were instantly destructive, as the impact tore through shield and armor alike, crumpling the warships like they were just cans, before they exploded outwards, showering those nearby with debris. Those shots that miss are almost as bad, as the projectiles explode with a wave of force that actually rocks the ships around them, driving them off course, even as lighting cannons from the Arfecta fire.

"Gah!" I shout, as my ship is battered, the gravity systems unable to compensate as we're punched first one way, then another as the lightning pounds into the shields. For her part, Freya keeps her cool, and quickly reroutes power, keeping us just this side of stable as she controls the shields like a woman playing a fine instrument. Stable after a moment, we fire a full barrage, sunbeams streaking out at the Pug super ship. The shields don't even flicker as the beams rake along that side as we sail past it.

"Another barrage of antimatter cannons is being prepped. Time to fire, fifteen seconds," shouts out Bandit, and I growl in frustration, as my fleet charges onwards anyway, dozens of yellow lances striking the shields of the enemy. Not one pierces that defense, the egg shaped outline of it visible for a few moments as the fire dies down, and then with a flash of light, the cannons fire again, shots of pure force streaking out towards the fleet behind us. I can hear the screams and shouts as the projectiles fly, before they're cut off by static, as the shots hit home.

"That just took out ten percent of our forces!" declared Tomek as his face appears on a screen, Danforth beside him. Neither is clear, and behind them I can see their bridges. Tomek's at least still has lights, but I can see the clouds of fire suppression systems working overtime to extinguish blown consoles and controls. Danforth's bridge seems barely online, his face flickering in and out, as fires rage all around him. Both men began shouting orders at their forces, but I can tell that anything else going wrong could break them.

"The fleet can't take another hit like that. We've got to do something," orders Danforth, and I nod my agreement, even as I try to think of something. Before I've even had a second, however, I can see the Arfecta already preparing another set of blasts. I want to do something, as the countdown timer pops up, helpfully giving me the exact moment this battle will be lost. Going over every option I have, I scream in frustration. Nothing would work in time. None of our weapons did enough damage, and even if we could, we'd lost at least forty Shield Beetles in that first pass, and I doubted we'd do any better the second.

"This is Tritus to all vessels, prepare to fire!" shouted a voice, and my scanners quickly highlight one of the Shield Beetles. It's online, but barely, battered and damaged by the blast from one of the first antimatter shots. This doesn't seem to stop her pilot, as the ship flies forward quickly, the wedge shaped craft crashing into the Arfecta with a flash of light, as its shield met the Pug's. The two vessels rocked, rolled, and otherwise shuddered, as the next barrage of antimatter fired, the Tritus in the way taking all the hits.

The projectiles detonate as they slam into the hull of the Tritus, her pilot's voice, a woman, being cut off as the ship itself vanishes in light, reduced to less than gas. Her sacrifice is not without merit, however, as the Arfecta's shields must either have dropped to fire, or simply not been up to the task of protecting it from the blast of its own weapons. The ship drifts backwards, propelled by the force, its defense a flickering barrier for a moment, before it vanished, leaving the ship exposed.

"Open fire!" I cried out, and suddenly lances shot out from every Shield Beetle in range. Hundreds of them connected at every angle against the hull of the Arfecta. To its credit, the Pug ship withstood the sheer amount of firepower directed against it, the beams seemingly having no effect for a few seconds. Then the first crack formed, a small hairline fracture in the hull, out of which poured gas and Pug bodies into the void. Then a crack second on the opposite side, both growing larger visibly as we continued to pour it on, until finally, the ship was consumed in a spectacular light, that blinded us all.

When the light cleared, a cheer went up. The Pug super ship was gone, reduced to atoms by our force, and everywhere else, the Pug ships were retreating. We granted no quarter to them, as Danforth and Tomek ordered the fleet to keep firing until the last ship had vanished, leaving the system once more in human hands. At that same moment, as if providence itself were smiling on us, the hyperspace route into Sol flipped to green.

"Sol Forces, jump immediately to our position. I repeat, all hands, emergency jump. We need you here, yesterday!" shouted Danforth, and we got more than a few confirmations as ships leapt out. It would take a day for any to appear, but the Pug would need the same amount of time to bring anymore forces to bear. Now the war was in our favor, and dripping with sweat, I turned to the girls on my bridge, and gave a weary smile, before we began the hard work of cleaning up after the battle.


	73. Victory?

Twenty-four hours later, the fleet arrives, and it is a thing of beauty. Ships that had filled the Sol system come in like a river of silver, soon flooding the Altair system. Some instantly begin patrol routes, moving to scan every inch of every planet, and even the star itself for enemies. Others fall into place with the remaining forces of our jump drive equipped force. The effect is like a shredded sheet being mended by patches, and in an hour, everything was prepared for a push into the Pug's home system.

"We're going to have a hell of a fight. My scouts everywhere are reporting that the instant the Arfecta fell, the other Pugs beat feet to home. We can only guess at their number, but even with every ship we've got, they're likely to dwarf us many times over," reported Danforth, and the faces of the various Admirals of the Navy nodded, along with some Deep commander I didn't recognize, and Tomek.

"Still, we can't let this advantage go to waste. If they seal their system up, we'll never be able to oust them, and when they come back out, they'll take our worlds one at a time," continued the Danforth, and that seemed to silence everyone. We all knew it was true. We had only a few jump drives remaining, and if they sealed their system, we'd only be able to send those ships in. So right now was our best bet to win this. We couldn't delay, no matter how tired the fleet that had already been fighting all this time felt.

"I'm with you. We can't allow them to cut us off again," I say, and for some reason that seems to embolden the Navy Admirals, who all perk up at my voice. With a few plans to go over, we all fall into formation one final time, and I get to look over my fleet. Three-hundred and some odd ships, the largest force of capitals under a single command, now reduced to only one-hundred-thirty-nine. Most of the captains had died, as well, with no time to abandon ship, and those few that had were going to be sitting this one out, making their peace on Shiver below.

"Sage, this has been your fight, and I feel it only right to give you the hane to give the order," said Danforth as every ship finished sliding into place. Looking at him, I nod, and open a general channel with every ship behind me. My force of a hundred, was barely a drop in the bucket, but I could almost hear the bated breath of every captain as they waited for my command.

"I'm not good at these heroic speeches, so I'm going to make this one short and sweet. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war," I said, and I got a million shouts of affirmation as we leapt into the final battle of the war with the Pug. Ships hit the hyperspace connection, while the forces that had them jumped there instead, blue fire consuming my vision, before it resolved into the Deneb system, and the twin worlds of the Pug. Of course, as it resolved, the scene was shown to be lacking one crucial detail. Namely, the Pug fleet that should have been defending their worlds was gone.

"All ships, stay together. We don't know if this is some kind of trick, and I don't want to lose anyone we don't have to," came Tomek's voice over the comms, and so we all sat quiet as the ships with the big sensor rigs began scanning the system. My display, tuned into the command channel, soon displayed all the info we had, and it was...odd. The ships had been here, a few hours ago in fact, but every engine trail died away, their paths converging on a point near the star that seemed empty now.

"Hmm, odd, that looks familiar," I said as I looked at the information as it displayed on my scanner. STAR nodded, and quickly waved his hand, bringing up another image, this one of the wormhole into Hai space. While the two sets of scans were different in certain elements, it was obvious that they were similar in more ways than one.

"Wait, a wormhole? You mean they bugged out?" asked Joe, and I looked blankly for a long time, before my thoughts were scattered by a chiming sound, as some comm signal was directed at us. Opening the line, I was surprised to find a Pug face floating in the screen in front of me.

"This is the one who visited us previously. You are invited to the surface of Pugglemug. You may bring what guards you wish, but we have no weapons, and will not harm you," said the face, before the line cut, leaving us staring blankly at where it had been. I immediately got on the line with the Admirals, and while they agreed it was a risk, they were insistent that I go. It was, after all, the one clue that we had to what was going on. I agreed, and was assigned an entire platoon of marines, whose transport landed ahead of my Flagship, their troops fanning out and pointing their weapons at the Pug standing on the landing platform, even before I made it down.

"You are the one known as Sage," it told me as I descended the ramp. The tone was not a question, but merely a statement of fact.

"I am that person, yes. I offered you the chance to leave us alone before. Are you accepting that, now that we've thrown you off our worlds?" I asked, and the Pug stared blankly at me with those big eyes, while androids came marching out of my ship, all ready to generate the sound, should it try that harmonic trick again.

"You have defeated an Arfecta. That is outside the parameters of your civilization, regardless of acquired technologies. The odds of successfully resisting, let alone destroying one, for a civilization of your level is miniscule at best," it said bluntly, and I wondered for a moment if it wanted me to apologize, or explain myself, but it turned away from me, and looked up into the sky.

"Your victory has surprised the Pug. I have not been surprised since the time before your star existed as more than a nebula. Our models of your species have to be recompiled. Know, however, that the Pug merely serve. The Pug are not the ones you have to defeat to truly be free," it said, more to the stars overhead, who were just coming out of a purple tinged sky, as the sun set over the horizon.

"We know. The Drak are your masters, or whatever's behind them. They've enslaved the Wanderers and the Quarg as well," I said, and the Pug actually seemed surprised by that, its head whipping around in a very owl-like fashion, its neck turning but not its body, as it blinked at me a few times.

"You know far more than you should. You have had contact with the aberrations known as the Alphas, which pulled this information from our mind," it said, this time its tone being more questioning, though not asking outright.

"No, at least not all of it. I have met the Alphas, yes, but I learned of the control of this galaxy via my own journey. I plan on doing everything in my power to free it," I declared, and that made the Pug sort of freeze, as if it were a computer and were having trouble processing the input.

"You have defeated an Arfecta, that is outside model. Defeating the Org is beyond you, even so," it said at last, and I walked over to it. Rather than facing it, I looked up into the sky, and then pointed, something telling me where to.

"You're saying it's impossible because you've seen people try and fail before, right?" I asked, and the Pug beside me nodded its head, while staring at me.

"This is correct. Countless species have thrown themselves at the Org. To date, none have succeeded. Those that come the closest have become its loyal servants," it said, and that actually brought me up short for a moment as I considered the implication of that statement.

"So the Pug, the Wanderers, and the Quarg, all of them opposed it," I surmised, and the Pug nodded again.

"You will fail, as we have. Your species will be repurposed. That is the way things have always been," it informed me helpfully, and I laughed, keeping my finger pointed at a star. Something about my finger did seem to draw the gaze of the Pug to it, and then back to me.

"Then we risk nothing by trying. I don't know why, but I know its there, isn't it? This Org thing. I can feel it. STAR, what system is that?" I call over my shoulder, and the android looks at where I'm pointing. He pauses for a moment, as he calculates vectors, and then does an odd jerk, I would have called a nervous tick in a biological human, like someone resisting remembering something they didn't want to.

"Sayabin. The system there is Sayabin, just beyond Korath-Za space. You mentioned it previously," he said, and I actually froze up myself there, my brain seizing on that name. He was right, after all. I'd said something about that system. It had been before all the bigger stuff in Hai space, something just after the incident with the Drak. I could feel something there, and it bothered me a lot. When the thoughts tried to slip away, I forced them into place, even as I felt a headache grow behind my eye. When I felt a warm liquid leaking, I put my hand up to it, expecting to find a tear, only to be startled as I saw I was actually bleeding from my eye instead.

"You have been there. You have seen the Org. The Pug know that sign. You are trying to remember it. You will not," declared the Pug, but I ignored it. There was something more important going on here, and I wasn't about to let it slip away. Instead I closed my eyes, and focused. Images, hazy and unsure, but there were drifting through my thoughts. Something in them, made me feel like visiting the Wanderers again, but I turned away from those thoughts, and instead focused on them, until I felt a weight pulling at my mind, and I just laughed.

"It's there. I know it is. The Korath built something, and its containing it, studying it. The Org is observing a grey goo scenario from the Korath's Twin Blades, a system the Mereti and Sestor have consumed. I visited there once, and I'm going to again," I responded, and I could actually hear the Pug gasp. Wiping the blood trail from my eye on my shirt, I looked back towards STAR and the marines, as well as Freya, Joe, and Bandit.

"We have to deal with Charles first, but we're going after that thing. Everyone, back into space. Pug, you think we'll fail, but I think we have something no one else had before now on our side," I told it as I walked away.

"And what is that?" it asked.

"We have a bit of Luck on our side," I responded in what I hoped was a cryptic tone, as I walked back up the ramp, and launched into space once again.


	74. Intel Gathering

"Admiral Danforth, I need to speak with Darien, now," I said as I settled into my chair. I heard an affirmative from Danforth, and in a few minutes, a familiar face was floating in front of me, looking so smug I almost wish I'd shot him back on New Tibet.

"Ah, Admiral Sage. I've already heard the good news, that you've driven off the Pug. I take it you realize what that means, however," he said, and I nodded gravely.

"The Org, the thing behind the Pug, is going to come after us now. Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but sometime in the future, it will come for humanity," I said bluntly, and he nodded.

"Indeed, and thanks to your actions, it's happening quite a bit sooner than we had wanted. Still, I doubt you would have called merely to hear me prattle on about your failings," he said, and I really am within a hair of hanging up on him, however, I know he needs me. He's goading me because he knows that, and he knows that once this is all over, well, he'll at best be executed for what happened at Geminus and Martini. At worst, NavInt would probably keep him around for generations as an example, as I doubted even people he'd trained would take kindly to his plots.

"You knew what the Org was, from the Pug you studied, that means you made plans, specifically weapons, for dealing with it," I responded, and Darien nodded.

"Oh, yes. That was Hobbes' mission. He believed that technology would need to be at the forefront of our assault. I don't think he finished his designs before you killed him however," he told me with a knowing smirk.

"Good, have those designs transferred to you, so I can get a copy. I'll be back in Sol soon. I want you and that data on my ship. We have two wars to finish, and I'm not letting you sit in the background for them," and with that, I cut the channel, before he can make a quip or smart remark. After that, I get on the horn to Tomek, whose ship is already waiting for the order to depart, along with the Free Worlds forces.

"Sage, I had a feeling you'd be in touch," he said, as he brushed away a few aides.

"Well, we have at least two more enemies to fight, and while the second is gonna take a lot more than we've got right now, that first is something I think we can take with the forces here," as I said that, I begin to map out a route, leading from the Pug system to Algenib, the system containing Buccaneer Bay, on which we knew Charles was based.

"I agree he should be dealt with, but I'm not so confident in our forces. We're coming off several hard won fights, and we know Charles is likely to be holed up in his system, with many defenders, possibly including atomics. I would suggest you revisit Korban, the Syndicate CEO, find out what he knows about the defenses Charles has, while we allow the troops a bit of rest and recovery," he explains, and I nod at that, looking back over my small bridge crew.

"Freya, I'm going to ask you something very hard. I need you to go to Sol, to Earth, and study the data Darien's going to get. You've seen the Pug Tech in action, and that gives you some insight into how it works," you tell her, and she nods at your assessment.

"You want me to see if there's anything weapon worth in the data, to help us in the fight that comes after," she fills in, and you nod back. She looks around at you, and then at Bandit and Joe, before rising.

"I'll do it, but you'd best believe the next fight we're going to have, I'm going to be with you in. It's not the sort of battle I'm going to wait out in safety, as I know there really isn't any to be had," she explains, before walking off the bridge. A quick shuttle transfer, and she's off to Sol, while Danforth, Tomek, and I shoot off towards Foundry, in just our flagships. Luckily, it seemed Korban was expecting us, and after a very short conversation all three large vessels are given berths, and we're driven off to meet with the CEO one last time.

"So, you've saved humanity from the alien menace, and made the galaxy safe again, from what I hear," he said from on his 'throne' while we sat down at the table in front of him.

"I would say that's at least partially accurate. Still, there's other threats than aliens, and right now, we have a fleet of ships that didn't get to participate in the big battle they were expecting. With Syndicate space so close, I know a few of them are imagining taking you to task for your actions. Unless, of course, you give us another target," said Danforth, and Korban nodded, before opening a small drawer on the side of his chair. Out of that he pulled a sheet of paper, and then walked down to us.

"I understand, I failed. I failed myself, I failed you, and I failed humanity. I let my fear control me, and as such, I have no right to call myself a leader. This is my resignation from the Syndicate, effective immediately," he said, passing the sheet to us to read.

"This is all well and good, but you must know, you won't be escaping with a golden parachute. Too many people died," said Tomek, looking over the document. It out and out said that Korban was going to try and take all the legal repercussions of the Syndicate's actions on himself. That was oddly noble of him, all things considered. Useless considering Soylent's testimony was already on file, and there were several cases that would spawn out of that, but still, noble. It made me briefly wonder what he was going to get out of it, or how he'd been coerced into giving himself up as a scapegoat.

"I understand, but the Syndicate must continue operation. We are the backbone of industry and innovation. Too many people only live because we're there to support them," he declared.

"That is for the courts to decide, not us, and not here. There are still opponents for us that will require martial force, however. Charles and his Alphas being the first of them. We know from other information that he's based on Buccaneer Den. We need to know what sort of defenses he has, and what sort of resistance he can put up," I told him simply, and that got Korban to sigh as he walked up back to his throne.

"Then I can only tell you rumors and the like. He has nukes, probably a few dozen of them. Several of the alien weapons we 'recovered' from the various species we encountered are also in his hands. Worse, we know he's enchanced them, his Epsilons are truly brilliant when it comes to that sort of thing. There's even rumors he's got a planetary shield for the world itself. Any assault would be facing odds I don't even want to imagine," admitted the man as he slumped into his seat, while confirming our worst fears.

"Is there anything you didn't share with him? Any bits of technology that you kept to yourselves?" asked Tomek, and that caused Korban to sit up, as he quickly typed something into a console on his throne. Soon, a device appeared in the air above us.

"This was a recent acquisition, from an unusual ship that wandered into our space. It's some kind of cloaking device, we think. It barely works, as of right now, and our best scientists give it a fifty-fifty chance of blowing up if we turn it on. It would have been sent along to Charles' group, when everything quieted down, but as that's not going to happen…," he trailed off, and I look at the thing, a motion with my hand gets him to pull up the stats on the thing, including where they're holding it, which I read before turning to the other two.

"My ships will have the easiest time integrating that. With it, I can scout the system out and paint targets for you. Better, if he does have a planetary shield, I can be under it, and try to find the generator when we start the assault," I advise, rising from my seat, the other two do likewise.

"Are you certain you want to take the risk?" asked Danforth as we walked from the room, leaving Konrad in the empty chamber.

"I've beaten the odds all my life. One in two chance of working is probably the best I've gotten in a while," I assure him.

"Alright, we have a plan then. We'll get the fleet together, and take the nearby world of Covert in the Gienah system. While we've got them distracted, you'll already be in the system getting all the scans you can of them as they prepare for our attack. With that info, we'll have at least a fighting chance," said Tomek, and we're soon off in three directions, Tomek towards Deneb, Danforth to Sol, and myself to Markab, and Hephaestus where the cloaking device is being held.

Luckily, the process of installing the thing is as easy as letting the hull sort of absorb it. This allows STAR to give us a full technical readout, both Bandit and Joe recognizing the thing as belonging to some other sealed away race of butterfly people called the Nox. They have no idea how the Syndicate got it, but they quickly help STAR repair it, and soon we're off towards the Algenib system, to face the last of the Old Men.


	75. The Fourth One Falls

My ship entered the Gienah system without a problem, the cloak suppressing the typical flash of blue light that normally accompanied our jumping in. Instead, we got to watch the maddening whirl of fleets and ships, as dozens of large and small hulls all seemed to move about at random. It was easy to paint them, quickly getting off the burst of electrons that would allow missiles an easier time locking onto their hulls, as few enough had their shields at combat levels during this lead up to the attack.

We listened in on comm chatter while we waited, hearing the panicked voices of pirates and mercenaries, as they learned of a massive fleet baring down on them. The reports varied wildly, with some containing millions of ships, while others were told it was only a few dozen at most. It soon became apparent that everyone here was expecting a fight for survival, with no quarter to be given.

It also became clear that they were, for all their lawlessness, ignorant of just who was in the system behind them, and the crimes they had committed to bring this hammer down upon them all. That got me to send off a quick burst transmission, advising Tomek and Danforth to offer that to them, as I could see many a crewman would throw themselves on the mercies of the two commanders, rather than make war with their fleet.

The test of the cloak done, after hours of waiting, we jumped again, this time into the Algenib system nearby. Here I found a world in much the opposite state. Here, a fleet martialed itself for war, as ships large and small made their way amongst the sky, slotting in and out in ways that seemed random at first, but gained an order as you watched. This was a fleet of people who were prepared to die for their leaders, to literally lay their lives down at the slightest hint that doing so could offer even a moment of respite for Charles.

With comms open wide, we soon got the picture of everything going on. The world of Buccaneer Den was populated with things that looked human, but were not. This was the center of the Omega's operations, with them breeding, or even growing, new examples of their sort of people. A quick orbital survey revealed the facilities where such things were taking place, and I marked them all on our charts, putting big red Xs on them so that the fleet would know to slag the sites from orbit the moment they entered.

Of course, to get to the planet, one would need to beat their fleet, and that was not a small order. The sheer number of ships was astonishing, given how remote the system was, with most of them being Protectors and Splinters, but with others thrown into the mix. Some were obvious Navy designs, some of which were no longer in service anywhere in the galaxy. Heck, a few actually dated back to the Alpha Wars themselves, from both sides of that horrible conflict, with hulls and shields just as strong as before, even if they had weapons more advanced.

It was the weapons that gave me pause, as I detected a confusing mixture of them, with no two hulls having the same loadout. Some were actually just plain mad, with huge power guzzling cannons mounted on hulls that were far too tiny for them. One shuttle was actually hauling around what I knew was a Korath weapon that actually massed more than ten times the ship itself. It would have been funny in other contexts, had I not known what that weapon could do in the right hands.

Others were deadly serious, however. The biggest obvious threat was a Protector sporting Skylances again. It might have been the same one from our mission to capture Soylent, in fact I desperately hoped it was, as the idea of two of those things running around was a horror. However, looking at it proved almost as terrifying, as it was obvious the ship's reactor was a much improved model, given the readings were were getting. Now it would be able to fire more than a short burst of the Quarg beam weapons, which could shred modern hulls with ease.

Cataloguing everything, we prepared, and made ready, waiting for the signal, which came a few days later. The system defending Algenib fell, and the combined Navy/Free Worlds force was on its way here. Almost immediately, the fleet got into perfect formation, and we watched as power began to build on the world below. It took only seconds to realize what was going on, and with a deftness that one would not expect of a large hull like the Shield Beetle, we slipped in just as the shield around the planet went up.

What followed was a day of waiting nervously, as the clock counted down to the arrival of the fleet, and we watched everything. Each tick seemed to make the waiting worse, and I felt my nerves begin to fray, barely able to take my sleep shift. Luckily, Bandit and Joe were there to help, and just as the clock hit zero, we struck, decloaking and firing a few shots from our sunbeams, which landed perfectly on the device generating the planet's defensive field, lowering it like a curtain, even as the battle began.

The distraction, and our tactical data download to the fleet, were perfectly timed, as Shield Beetles, Carriers, Cruisers, and Dreadnaughts soon filled the skies, firing the moment they were in range. Missiles, Torpedoes, and other such things shot through space, the defenders caught off guard by a two pronged attack, not knowing if they should strike at my ship first, or deal with the far larger threat that the incoming force posed. Charles' voice came over the comms to give them that order, but it was too late.

The ships were out of formation now, and the fleet incoming, more numerous, and almost as coordinated as the Alphas and Deltas, proved to be overwhelming. The fighting was harsh, of course, as our ships were struck by strange alien rays, the crew inside exploding, and leaving their hulls to simple drift. For every fallen vessel, two more took its place. Still ven with their suicidal devotion, determination, and strange weapons, these 'perfected' humans could hold out for more than an hour from the onslaught, and we were landing on the planet.

Later, as cleanup was being done in orbit, myself and a small team entered the control center of the planet, and I stood in front of Charles. Well, what remained of him. The oldest of the Old Men, the last one I hadn't confronted, had chosen the easy way out, and shot himself with a plasma pistol, while staring out the window of his office at a nearby sea dock. With a smoking hole in his head, he was pitiful sight to behold, and I spit at him, just for good measure, before leaving. I didn't even bother getting a recording of him. At least the others had died fighting. He hadn't even bothered.

"So, this was it? The last big fight before we confront a god?" asked Tomek as he, Danforth, Joe, Bandit, and myself met on the landing pad.

"It was, and that fights going to be the hardest we've ever fought. Still, one final battle, and this is over. We win, or we die. Either way, we're free," I say, and motion for the nearby STAR controlled android to project a holomap for us.

"I take it, you have a plan?" asked Tomek, and I nodded.

"It's not one I'm all the way happy with, but it's the one that feels right. I need you to to go back to the Free Worlds, the Navy, the Deep, the Syndicate, Pirate, and anyone else in human space with a ship. I need you to gather up the largest fleet you can, and assemble them at Stormhold, in the Alcyone system," I said, pointing to the world, which blinked in the map.

"A bit remote, but i take it, we can get to Sayaiban from there?" inferred Tomek, but I shook my head.

"Not directly, but it's on the way. Once I know more, I'll give you more information, but for right now, the two of you get as many people there as you can, because when this all goes up, we're going to have to act, fast," I said, and it was Tomek's turn to nod.

"Bandit, Joe, I have missions for you as well," I said, and both girls gave me what I knew were very serious looks.

"We'll be with you, just like always," said Joe, but I just shook my head.

"I want that, I really do, but this isn't just about humans, we need others too. There's other races in this galaxy that need to be free, and we can't do that alone. Bandit, I want you to go to the Rings, as many as you know of, and get them to come along. Tell them what we're doing, don't let the Speakers suppress it. If even a fraction of a Ring joins us, our chances of success go up a significant percentage," I ordered, and though she looked about to argue, she just nodded instead, as I turned to Joe.

"You do the same with your people. Not just the normal Hai either. The Unfettered deserve to be there with us. They were being used, first by the Org, then by the Omegas, but now we can show them how you actually go about winning your freedom," I told her, and she looked concerned at me.

"What about you? What are you going to do?" she asked at last, and all four of them looked at me in a way that was asking the same question. I stared up at the map, looking at the three destinations I had in mind, and sighed.

"I have some….friends to revisit. I'll also have to makes some calls to make. You two just claim some Shield Beetles," I ordered, and then entered my own, leaving them to work it out, as I walk into the command room. Quickly dialing a secure line, I get two faces on my screen, one I'm happy to see, one less so.

"Sage, you've called at a great time, I've got some ideas on how to make the weapons Bernard's team was designing work," said Freya as she came on. Behind her, Darien was looking a lot less smug than usual, staring at the screens she'd just been at.

"I must admit, you were right to send Ms. Winters to me. She's been quite the asset in this. I think we've leapt at least a decade ahead in our research," admitted the Omega, and I smiled at that. Something about a normal human showing up the Old Men's Epsilons was actually rather gratifying, even if I myself was more akin to the latter than the former.

"That's very good to hear, very good indeed. Darien, I want you to bring that with you, and meet me at Mars. I'll be there to pick you up in a few days. Freya, we're gearing up for one last fight, and I have a special job I need you to do," I said, and the smiles vanished from the faces.

"I want you to open the galaxy up. We know the Pug, Drak, or whoever has been editing the hyperspace lanes, probably using that same thing they did on us. I want all those destroyed, or at least, as many as you can. For that, I'm giving you command of my entire fleet, save my Flag. With STAR's help, you and my captains should be able to get at least some paths open," I tell her.

"That….that sounds like a great idea. I take it you're going to be doing something else though," she answers, and I nod.

"Darien and I have some favors to call in. Better, I think he's just the man I need to build some bridges. If it all works out, we'll have some aces up our sleeve when we confront the Org," I say simply, and we cut the channel a few moments later. With that, with everyone given a task, we depart Buccaneer Den, and head off towards one final battle.


	76. The Call To Battle

"Are you certain this is a good idea? Leaving our own ship unmanned doesn't seem the wisest action to take, given where we are," said Darien as he followed me down the ramp, and out into the station. I ignored him, merely thinking that he could stay on the ship if he were scared. As one might expect of an Omega, he seemed to pick up on the thought, and just scoffed at the idea. His hand still went to his weapon as we finally got to the end of the corridor we'd been walking down, to find a large open chamber, with the only person present being the oldest man I'd ever seen, still sitting exactly as he had the last time I'd been here.

"Foremost of the Korath-Ah, I have returned," I announced as we walked up to him, and I saw his face crack into a very ancient looking smile. His withered limbs looked much the same as before, despite the years that had passed. Whatever was keeping him alive was very good at it, but I could see small tears in his skin as I got closer that were new. It took only a moment to realize that the silver liquid flowing into those must have been pumping his blood for him now. That said much about his state.

"To you warrior, I give greetings. What business do you have that keeps you from the dance of death? I see only one companion, and a single vessel in your force this time. Have you fallen as we have?" he asked, the last sounding more concerned than I would have expected, like he genuinely cared about my well being.

"No, Foremost. My fleet has grown many fold since our last battle, and been reduced as well, for I have fought in many battles, and the one that lies before me now is such that I need all that dwell in the Endless Sky to stand with me," I said, something in me helping me to find the words I needed to say. Darien, for his part, seemed impressed, and merely stood by silently, as the Korath before us considered my words.

"A foe of such magnitude is not unknown to us. You fight the Drak?" he asked, a glimmer of hope in his eyes as he leaned forward, his body seemingly close to breaking in half as he did so.

"Greater still. There is a force behind them, a thing called the Org. It commands the Drak, the Pug, the Quarg, the Wanderers, and likely many others. It is by the will of that thing that this galaxy has become as it has, with so many of us locked away from one another, the Endless Sky given edges that none may cross," at my words, the Korath-Ah seemed almost giddy, like a child being told they were getting out of school early. I actually heard him squeak a little, as he considered my words.

"So, at last something on which to fight. Would you have us make fleets for this battle? Unceasing tides of ships to wash this foe away?" he asked, and then almost looked like a deflating balloon as I shook my head.

"More than ships will be needed to end this threat, and slay this enemy, Foremost. We need the Korath-Ah, the Korath-Za, and all that you have made. Tell me what you know of the Twin Blades. They were made by the Za, but they were made to assist the Ah. Is there a way to control them?" I asked, and that actually got the old man thinking, leaning back in his seat for several minutes, unmoving to the point that I honestly thought he'd died. Then all at once, something rose from the floor, a pillar of silver liquid that then formed into a hand, holding out a datadrive.

"I do not know if these will help, but in the farthest memories of our kind, these were the keycodes to control the Blades. So much time has passed that I do not know if they will still respond to them, but if one brave enough to stand against the master of the Drak were to command them, I'm certain they will follow," he says, as I take the drive, configured already for my systems on my ship, reminding me that so many humans had died at the hands of the Korath.

"Then we will make use of the Blades, and yourself as well. This is information I acquired recently, on a larger scale version of the jump drives your Raiders use. It should, if our information is accurate, allow you in person, within this station, to join in our battle," as I said this, I pulled out my own datadrive, and set it on the hand, which closed around the thing, and then melted into the floor again. Moment later, a hologram of the drive floated in the air above us, the Foremost grinning even wider at it, till I thought his jaw was going to fall off.

"Truly, you have gifted me with something that is invaluable. I shall spread this great word to all my brothers and sisters, and we shall join you for this glorious battle," he said, his eyes still lit up, before he turned to face us.

"Where will this fight be held? And when? You said allies would be joining us, and I that seems wise, given the foe we face," he asked, and I nodded.

"The information, including a countdown clock, is on the datadrive. We'll be joining with the fleet in an out of the way system first, before we go to do battle with the Org. For now, we have other allies to gather," I told him, turning. Darien, looking at him, and then at me, followed on my heels, and we were soon back onboard my ship, preparing to leave.

"Quite a risky endeavor that. He might have decided the foe we offered was too great, and destroyed us, lest we bring it down on his head," commented the Omega was we slid away from the station and back into open space.

"It wasn't a risk at all. I met him before, and I even ended our last conversation on an insult. If he'd still felt bad about it, he'd have sent ships at us the moment we arrived. As he didn't, I figured he wanted a good fight, not just an easy target," I shot back as I began to lay in a new course.

"Still, you knew exactly what to say to get him to agree. I'd say you had some empathic abilities, if I didn't know better. Truly, Luck is quite a versatile ability," he said, and I didn't respond at all to the barb, as I shot us off once again, two more meetings to finish before this was over.


	77. Gathering Forces

"The winds that bring you bear the scent of war, Human Sage. Most distressing for we who fly on peaceful breezes," said Iktat Rek as I come down off my ship. It takes me a minute to process the odd speech pattern, and I wonder briefly how he knows of why I'm present. At least until I spot a familiar looking face in the crowd. A Pug is here, standing amidst a group of Wanderers who look odd. Their feathers are dyed in strange, swirling patterns, and they have crowns atop their heads, covering their head feathers.

"Indeed, a war to end this galaxy as it exists now, and bring about a new age for all who dwell here," I tell him, the words coming to me by that same feeling as the Korath-Ah had. These words themelves seemed to cause a ripple amongst the oddly colored group of Wanderers, who parted to allow a much smaller form through. It was Sayari, the Hai Priestess whom I'd escorted here many a month ago. Her fur was done in those odd twisted patterns, but she wore a crown much like the Wanderers around her.

"My people, are they involved in this war?" she asked, her voice concerned, and I saw in her a fear, not for herself, but for innocent lives. I nod, and then gesture, my hands going out, like the wings of a bird, as I motion towards the heavens.

"All the lights in the sky are involved, for this war is to be fought for them as a whole, not in part. A gathering of forces, to gain freedom for us all from the tyranny of the ones who have so claimed they know our destiny," with that said, I turn to face the Pug, who does that weird thing with his eyes, blinking from top to bottom, and then side to side.

"You truly intend to do this, then? You would challenge the Org, as was done in ages past?" he asks, and his voice seems to startle everyone present, whether because they know what he is talking about, or simply because he was normally silent, I didn't know.

"I do, but not alone. Everyone who has fought it, has done so on their own. This has proven to the Org that they wish to rule in its place. I don't intend to dominate, however. My people, for all the power we wield, are not so united as to be able to do so. My goal is freedom. What others choose to do with that, is up to them," I tell him, and the Pug just looks at me.

"Such winds. Much change they bring to us," said Iktat, stepping forward.

"By your words, I can read the squall waiting behind them. You wish us to take wing to the Endless Sky, to fly beside you in a hunting flock for this Org," he said, and I nod.

"I know war isn't the way your practice, but you know how it is done. You protected yourself from the Unfettered. This is a greater foe than even that. It controls the winds on which you fly. Is that what the Wanderers want? Or would they rather be free to fly as they will?" I ask, and Rek takes a moment, his beak opening as if to say something, before he turns away, and then walks over to the oddly colored birds with Sayari.

"Did you make a similar speech to my people?" asks the Hai holy woman as she steps up next to me, and I shake my head.

"Joe is taking care of that. She's going to try to get the Unfettered and your own people to work together," I say, and Sayari nods at that, as we both watch the Wanderers talk to each other, breathing at one another in a way that indicates they might be shouting. The colored ones sometimes pull back from the group to stare at me, but I don't say anything, just stare back, before they gather in smaller groups, which begin the breath shouting at each other again, until finally, Rek pulls away, and looks towards me.

"Those Who Gaze have long known the Eye is artificial, as have the Wanderer people. It is far to regular to be anything otherwise. Our oldest winds tell of our ancestors, who once ruled many Skies. They challenged the being that controls the Eye, and in their defeat, he offered them a choice between oblivion or servitude," as he spoke, Iktat Rek began to walk towards me, his wings folded around him, like a cloak that ruffled slightly in the breeze.

"We know these stories well, and we serve the Eye now not because of our defeat, but because we take pleasure in the healing of worlds. Still, there are those among us who remember always that it was being defeated that made us who we are, and wish one day to challenge the Being once again. If we fail once more to claim victory, it might mean the extinction of our people," the last was said thoughtfully, as he walked right by me, causing me to turn as he gazed at my ship, his hand going up, as if to touch the hull which hung just out of reach.

"And yet, that is the way of things. One must die, to birth another. The Wanderers have seen this time and time again on the worlds we heal. Our warrior side died, to make us healers. Now even that must be gambled to bring about the next age. We will fly with you, Human Sage, in honor of what you have done for us, and to gain our freedom," he said at last, and I nodded, holding out my hand, and then having STAR give me the datadrive.

"This contains the battleplan, and the location data for were to go. I've had Freya going around destroying hyperspace disruptors, and if I'm right, you'll need to proceed to the western edge of your space. You should, hopefully, find a route into human space, and from there, you'll be joining the fleets that will see us dead, or see us free," I said, and Rek took the drive, looking at it like it was made of poisoned gold, something one desires with all one's heart, but knows that it might lead to death.

"We will be ready," he said simply, and then offered Sayari a hand. Together, they took off, and so did the colored Wanderers. One offered the same hand to the Pug, but the lanky, bulbous headed creature waved it off, instead walking up to me. The three of us, the Pug, Darian, and myself watched the Wanderers fly off, before the Pug finally turned to me.

"We have received word. Many Quarg Rings are moving vast numbers of their ships about. A massive undertaking the likes of which has never been seen from their forces. What's more, paths are reopening. Hyperspace lanes that have lain dormant for millennia longer than your world has supported life are coming back into existence, freeing the sealed away species," as the Pug spoke, I nodded, glad to hear we'd been having successes like that.

"And yet, it won't be enough. We have seen species that have spread far more than yours fail to achieve this, and all those that have been kept sealed away can add are numbers. They were not enough to even fight the Org before. Why do you insist on gathering them now, knowing the chances of victory are nearly nothing," asked the alien, and I actually have to think about that for a moment. I have a hand to play here, I know it, and while I'd hoped to play it with the Quarg of the Eighth Ring in Korath-Za space, perhaps now would be better.

"We know the Org seems invincible. Darien here picked at the mind of one of your iterations at the start of all this. He's seen that thing tear apart stars, and move worlds around at a whim. Heck, right now they're containing a nanite apocalypse that could devastate the galaxy. That sort of power is the stuff they right legends about," I admit, and it seems to draw the Pug closer, as if it were looking for some answer in my face.

"Then why?" it asks again, an emphasis on the last word that one might miss, if they didn't listen for it. It was not a question the Pug was asking an answer for. It was asking for hope.

"Because, we think we have an idea," I said, and then leaned forward. A whispered command to the android beside me had it cup its hands, and display a rather interesting device in holographic form before it. Darien looked about ready to slap it down, looking worriedly at the Pug, but then he stopped, as he obviously felt something from the alien that I could sense without mental abilities. The first ray of hope piercing through its dark cloud of despair.

"This is...incredible. Did you design this?" it asked, and I shook my head.

"The Epsilons started the design, but they were stymied by their own lack of imagination. They improve what exists, refining and perfecting it, but this wasn't something that has ever existed before. Freya was the one to come up with the final design, but she claims we're about a million years away from building it. I had wanted to ask the Quarg to make it, but now…" I trail off, and the Pug just shakes its head, reaching for the image.

"No, no, even if they could, the Quarg are not advanced enough. The Matrix would never hold up under their crude techniques. At best, you could maybe get them to destroy one of their Ringworlds. Only we have the capability of building this in the time required," it admitted, and I smiled, knowing that I had a rather unexpected ally in the coming fight.

"Then help me. Help the galaxy and yourself be free. The Pug fought the Org once, and lost. Together, all of us fighting as one, maybe we can make that a reality," I say, and the Pug seems to consider my words very, very carefully, before turning back to me.

"Our ships, even if they could mount this device, are monitored in ways that we cannot prevent. One of your vessels must be altered to be the carrier," it told me, and I look up at my Shield Beetle.

"I'd be willing," I say, and it shakes its head.

"This hull will be capable, but it will require the removal of most of the internal structure. You will lose much of your abilities, and weapons. The Core must be removed as well," it says, and that actually brings me up short for a moment, as my idea depended on the core, but I just shrugged.

"Okay, I'll come up with a design for it. I'll contact Freya, she should be opening up Wanderer space soon. Where do I go when I need to come for the refit?" I ask, and it looks up in the sky, before pointing to a star seemingly at random.

"Vera Pug circles the star Pug Iyik. It houses a facility capable of doing what is required," it said, and then walked off across the Wanderer spaceport, boarding a ship of Pug origin, and then shooting off. Darien and I watched it go, before we went back inside the Shield Beetle, and then waited for Freya to establish a connection with us. We had work for her, and then...then it would all begin.


End file.
